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" &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re putting everything from chairs and tables to bookcases and cabinets to new use. People have always done it, but now you realize that it&amp;#039;s green, too. For one of my current projects, the mandate is to find everything in the same city, so we&amp;#039;re not having things made or shipped.&amp;quot; \u2014DAVID MANN &amp;quot;I recycle old curtains. Cotton can be a toxic material to produce, so I&amp;#039;ll take clients&amp;#039; curtains out of storage \u2014 I&amp;#039;ve even bought boxes of them at auction \u2014 and re-dye them, re-hem them, re-do the pleating, change the trim. If there&amp;#039;s water damage or staining, I just dye them a darker color.&amp;quot; \u2014SUSAN GUTFREUND &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve given up using precious woods in my design, something I really love. In my latest commercial project, the Ayya Hotel in New York, I&amp;#039;ve incorporated bamboo floors and recycled aluminum tiles, and I&amp;#039;ve double-insulated all the windows to regulate the temperature in the rooms. At home I only run the dishwasher once a week, and the air-conditioners are on the economy setting \u2014 they switch off when the room is cool enough. I disconnect appliances that aren&amp;#039;t in use, including my mobile phone charger, and when I need to travel in the city, I ride the subway.&amp;quot; \u2014VICENTE WOLF &amp;quot;I like to design recycling and compost areas that are organized, labeled, and easy to use for everyone, even houseguests!&amp;quot; \u2014ALISON SPEAR &amp;quot;I install Lutron&amp;#039;s whole-home dimming system in every house I design. It saves energy, and also makes it so easy to set the right lighting for a gorgeous meal at home with friends, or the &amp;#039;just before bed&amp;#039; lighting when you&amp;#039;re enjoying a book in your favorite reading chair. I&amp;#039;ve always been a big proponent of having all lights on dimmers \u2014 nothing affects the look of a room more than the lighting.&amp;quot; \u2014ERINN VALENCICH &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m using less toxic paints, those with lower VOCs. I like Benjamin&amp;#039;s Moore&amp;#039;s Aura collection. My two favorite colors are Solitude, for walls, and Constellation, for trim. Together they create a Gustavian look, a room that is as cool and crisp in summer as it is elegant and dramatic in winter. I also like Armstrong&amp;#039;s Lock &amp;amp;amp; Fold laminate flooring. It&amp;#039;s pre-finished, so you don&amp;#039;t need chemicals to glue it down or seal it. I really want to lower my carbon footprint. It&amp;#039;s in the upper 20s, and I need to get it down to the teens. You can check your own at carbonfootprint.com. \u2014ERIC COHLER &amp;quot;I ride a Vespa as often as I can. Something I used to do for pleasure, I now do with a sense of guerrilla greenness. Really want 70 mpg? Get one, get on it, and leave the car behind. The great thing from a design point of view is that Vespas are absolutely beautiful. It&amp;#039;s so hard to choose a color \u2014 you want them all!&amp;quot; \u2014DAVID NETTO &amp;quot;I use eco-friendly products, like those by Seventh Generation and Mrs. Meyer. I&amp;#039;ve just built a house on Nantucket with all natural materials \u2014 real wood, no fiber board, and natural insulation.&amp;quot; \u2014SUSAN ZISES GREEN &amp;quot;A year ago I had solar panels installed at my office, and now I wish I had installed more. I haven&amp;#039;t really noticed a big change in power costs yet, but it makes me feel better.&amp;quot; \u2014MICHAEL S. SMITH &amp;quot;On all of my projects, I&amp;#039;m making a concerted effort to use suppliers, manufacturers, and products that are available closer to the site. The farther we ship, the more fossil fuel we use. We&amp;#039;ve all grown aware of the toll of long-distance food shipping, but really this applies to all products.&amp;quot; \u2014ROBIN BELL "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.housebeautiful.com/home-remodeling/interior-designers/a127/last-words-0908-how-designers-are-going-green/>