Mater Design | Home Accessories With A Mix Of Social Responsibility

These days it’s not enough to furnish your house with exquisite designer furniture. If you really want keep up with Joneses, it’s got to be ethical, too. Luckily, design companies are cottoning on to consumer demand. Take for example Copenhagen-based Mater Design, which launched at the Maison et Object show in Paris in ‘06.

Mater successfully combines “exclusive home accessories and corporate social responsibility,” according to their website. Mater founder and CEO Henrik Marstrand says “For every one of the millions of products we use to improve the quality of our lives, there are associated environmental, ethical and social consequences. While some products have a small environmental bearing, others consume finite resources in vast quantities and are produced under abusive labour conditions and cause environmental damage.” Continue Reading / See Additional Photos

The Alight Kitchen Encourages Conscious Consumption

It’s the eve of the Apocalypse. We’re running out of food, clean water and other resources. No, this isn’t the synopsis of a new Hollywood blockbuster, but the premise on which the Turkish designers who call themselves Altera Design Studio based their Alight concept kitchen. At first glance, it looks like a minimalist’s wet dream — modular, monochromatic with strategic splashes of turquoise and steel. But there’s substance behind the style.

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When it comes to Well Designed Green Kitchens, Italians know Best | Valcucine

Will your grandchildren be able to cook? Owners of luxurious green Valcucine kitchens will certainly be hoping so. Italian kitchen design company, Valcucine, effortlessly merges high-end aesthetics and environmental wherewithal to create a product that is both beautiful while “spanning generations”.

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The Americana | What Every Kitchen Wants To Be When It Grows Up

That the Italians know a thing or two about design is an understatement. After all, this is the nation that brought us Alessi, Prada and Ferrari. Italy is also at the forefront of gastronomic world. Where would we be without grilled eggplant, mushroom risotto and frothy soy cappuccinos? Not bulging out of our Prada pencil skirts probably, but that’s by the bye. Given the country’s two great loves, it comes as no surprise that the Italians have created the perfect kitchen…apparently just for us.

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Ecover | Better Than Taking an Axe to Your Dishwasher

Not owning a TV is so passe; the new cool in ecological elitism is not owning a dishwasher. Sure, it ages your hands, nurtures obsessive compulsive disorder and sucks all the joy out of a 16-person dinner party, but it’s better for the environment. I’m proud to be a part of the wash-by-hand camp, cleaning up “as you go” and saving water.

But if you do own a dishwasher, don’t take an axe to it just yet< -- if used efficiently, a dishwasher can be a handy appliance.

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