There’s a scene in the movie Evan Almighty when the title character, played by Steve Carrell, doesn’t bat an eye atphotogalvanic module, ordering old-growth cherry for his new kitchen cabinets. The wry message is subtle - in the context of designing a beautiful new space we can feel incredibly removed from the impact of our choices.

It’s great to see a poster-child example of sustainable design like the Presentation Center, highlighted in Monday’s post.

But what can each of us do, in our own spaces? Must we sacrifice aesthetics for ethics?

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, so to speak, let’s define what we mean by sustainable design.

Sustainable design strives to:

• Source locally to reduce transportation impact
• Efficiently utilize materials
• Create minimal waste
• Utilize renewable resources, and those with the least environmental impact
• Incorporate recycled, re-used, and adapted materials
• Minimize energy required to heat, cool and use the finished space
• Consider the lifecycle of the design, and its eventual re-use or adaptation

And while we’re defining: a renewable resource is one that replenishes naturally as fast or faster than people use them. So strike fossil fuels and petroleum-based products (plastic), as well as marble, granite and the like. While technically renewable, timber needs to be managed carefully – better than we’ve been doing to date.

Fortunately we don’t need to build our homes like the little pigs - of straw and sticks. There are extraordinary solutions out there, as creative as they are green.