As “green” design goes mainstream, I’m finding limitless information about the movement, the philosophy and, recently, about the concepts and products that will help us create eco-friendly spaces.

While the reasoning and the philosophy would be hard to deny, the actual steps we as kitchen and bath designers can take are not always so clear. In the past, it seems it has been a matter of seeking out information from commercial and whole-house green standards and attempting to apply them to the spaces on which we focus.
No more!

In a year when a film about global warming has won an Academy Award, my biggest challenge in writing this column has been to cull the available information to a manageable amount. With that in mind, we’ll limit this column to the kitchen and plan for another column on the bath. With so much to cover, we’ll look at some of the helpful steps a kitchen designer can take – and, following an example from An Inconvenient Truth, we’ll suggest Websites you can access for further information (see story below).

To begin, let’s look at the meaning of “green.” While there’s no single definition, environmentally considerate or green design is outlined by some people in terms of the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. To those, I might add a fourth R – Rethink.

In the kitchen, this asks us to reduce use and waste of space and resources, as well as unhealthy pollutants; to reuse the space and the elements of it, and to recycle products and materials. What can we do to accomplish this? Although it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition, there are many things we can do, each one a step toward a healthier environment, and resulting in the lowest negative impact.