Cooking up an eco-friendly space

This is an encyclopedia of great ideas on how to build a kitchen with a conscience -- a kitchen as handsome and homey (or as sleekly modern) as any around.

But this kitchen will have cabinets, floors, walls, countertops and appliances that help save the Earth’s eco-system and the family’s health as well. First, you’ll have to learn a lot of acronyms, like FSC, which stands for the Forest Stewardship Council. It’s a group devoted to environmental forest management standards. And VOC, shorthand for Volatile Organic Compounds.

FSC is good. A “green kitchen” requires cabinets and other wood items made from trees grown and harvested in an environmentally responsible manner. Buying products that are FSC-sanctioned helps to assure that. VOCs are bad in that they are a source of indoor air pollution. Who’d want noxious vapors rising from the particleboard, paint, wood and other materials used in a room where the family spends so much time?

Along with these are dozens, maybe hundreds, of other names and initials that are explained in the book, although they’re not yet in common parlance.

They ought to be.

The author includes an amazing variety of eco-friendly products, with tables and charts that explain each one, along with the pros and cons of using them.

Photos throughout illustrate the inherent beauty and design possibilities of each material mentioned, and may be an eye-opener to those about to embark on a kitchen remodel. But the book delivers more. The inspiration, information and illustrations offered can be used in rooms throughout the house.

-- Bettijane Levine