Consumers have Whole Foods Market (WFMI) to satisfy their organic cravings. And now they have Green Depot to get their insulation made out of reused jeans.

Founded by frustrated mom Sarah Beatty, who wanted to create a healthy environment when renovating her Manhattan apartment but ended up with mold, Green Depot is a one-stop shop for consumers looking to build or renovate in a more environmentally-friendly way.

“We're talking about everything from flooring to framing to adhesive caulks,” said Beatty, of what Green Depot offers. “Our mission is to make green products accessible and affordable.”

When Beatty started Green Depot three years ago, she figured the company would service the building industry, providing supplies and design ideas, so she set up showrooms in industrial areas in Boston, Brooklyn, N.Y., Newark and Philadelphia. To her surprise, half of the traffic came from consumers and not the construction and home-improvement markets. Later this year, Green Depot will open its first retail store in New York City that, like Home Depot (HD), will sell home-improvement products, but only those that are deemed to be green.

“This is really a consumer driven movement,’’ said Beatty, who also runs a Web site, www.greendepot.com,, where you can buy green building supplies and get information. “Contractors are taking the usual approach. The consumers are on the ones saying to use non toxic paint.” 

Visitors to the Green Depot showrooms can get ideas on green products, whether it’s flooring or kitchen cabinets, as well as have their green ideas designed and planned by Green Depot employees. The company also offers a service for contractors called Flip It Green, in which Green Depot evaluates an entire job and show how to do it green.

With concerns over air quality and rising energy costs, consumers are looking for alternative ways to create healthy living spaces whether it’s phamaldehide-free insulation or pesticide-free bug sprays.

According to a McGraw-Hill Construction report the market for green homes is expected to increase from $2 billion in October of 2007 to up to $20 billion over the next five years. Homeowners are using green products for 40% of their remodeling with motivating factors for green building including energy efficiencies, indoor air quality and water conservation. The report found that education and awareness is the major obstacle to green building, even surpassing the extra costs associated with using green products. 

But the popularity of green products has also led to a lot of confusion for consumers. Anyone can say they make a green product since there isn’t one standards body that regulates all of the so-called environmentally friendly products. There are products produced with the EcoLogo or Green Seal, which are groups that certify green products.

The lack of standards on green products was a surprise for Beatty and made her more resolute that Green Depot had to exist. Green Depot, with the help of scientists at the Rochester Institute of Technology's Golisano Institute for Sustainability, puts products under an evaluation process to ensure the products are indeed green and do what they say they do. The process includes looking at how the product is manufactured, how the company’s plants are run and even labor practices. Beatty is confident that in the next three or four years there will be standards in place that will protect consumers from being bamboozled when a manufacture claims a product is green.

But the credibility of the products isn’t the only obstacle to consumer adoption. Often, green products cost more and appeal to more affluent consumers. That is changing, opening the door for less wealthy consumers to embrace the green movement.  

“It used to be more than 20%,” for green building, said Beatty. “That’s coming down because there’s more than one choice. There’s the medium green choice that's affordable for the middle class.”