Green Design Grows in Popularity
July 24, 2004 | Levent OZLER
As people become more concerned about the environment, "green" design is rapidly gaining in popularity.
Being green means using environmentally friendly products and design techniques, and it appeals to the conservation-minde d as well as to those who wish to live in more-healthful surroundings.
"When you buy products from companies that engage in environmental stewardship -- meaning conservation and management of resources -- you're being green," said Bernadette V. Upton, president of Bernadette V. Upton Interiors and Eco Décor, a green-products store. "It also means creating healthy living spaces, which is particularly important for people who are asthmatic, chemically sensitive or mold sensitive."
Upton, who also is president of the South Florida chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, has been a green designer since the early 1980s -- long before there was a name for what she was doing. Back then, "I called myself an 'environmental designer,' " she said.
Since that time, she constantly has been searching for green products for her clients, most of whom need green homes because of health reasons. But being green, Upton has discovered, is easier in some ways than in others.
No-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints, for example, are readily available in popular paint lines, such as Benjamin Moore
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