Living Green

By Elizabeth Stanek
Photography courtesy of Trudy Dujardin

When interior designer Trudy Dujardin walks through her front door after a day of debating fabric swatches and antique selections, her conscience is as clear as Nantucket’s night sky, and as clean as the air which circulates inside her house.

That’s because her island home is “Green” – a buzzword today as sustainable design rapidly gains momentum. Hearst’s recently-completed Green tower graces the New York City skyline and Boston’s City Hall sprouts a Green roof.

New, chic, eco-friendly home products are hitting the market, as the Green house concept finally sheds its association with the granola-cruncher’s abode. The environmentalists’ platform (built out of recycled hardwood, of course) conveys that an eco-friendly lifestyle is no longer a niche interest or merely a chic trend, but a crucial and “right” choice for responsible citizens.

Dujardin is the ideal face of Green design. Last October, she returned from the Design Futures Council’s fifth annual Summit on Sustainable Design in Santa Fe, New Mexico, her voice hoarse from an exciting whirlwind of discussions on trends and new Green building concepts. There, the Council ratified architect Edward Mazria’s 2030 Challenge, which aims to make all new buildings carbon-neutral by 2030, thereby reducing greenhouse gasses and putting a cap on global warming.

Also ratified by the AIA, the challenge begins with a 50 percent fossil-fuel reduction standard for every new building, gradually increasing to a 60 percent reduction standard by 2010, 70 percent by 2015, and so on. Climate scientist James Hansen of NASA, who recently led a study which found that the earth’s temperature is approaching a level not seen in thousands of years, also spoke of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gasses.

“We really are in trouble,” says Dujardin. “But I’m hopeful for where the future’s heading.”

Elizabeth Stanek is an editor at The Village Voice and former editorial assistant at Nantucket Today, where she is a frequent contributor.

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