If it’s green, it’s golden

Eco-designer Kelly LaPlante’s mantra is “green is a standard, not a style.”

To demonstrate this point, the California designer with a celebrity clientele presented random pictures of interiors torn from magazines on a recent visit to Kansas City, Mo.

Any room, LaPlante says, even if it’s shocking pink, can be designed with eco-friendly materials because they’re so readily available these days.

“I can source any look in 30 minutes,” she says. “There is no perfect eco solution. But you don’t want children in China” making your furniture.

LaPlante’s new book, “Ecologique” (Organic Interior Design, $50), features the diverse looks of 15 of her clients’ homes, including those of actors Ally Sheedy, Michael Rapaport and Tiffani Thiessen.

She is giving 100 percent of the net proceeds from sales of the 159-page book, full of photographs and resources, to Global Green USA and the Blank Theatre Co.

LaPlante, of Venice Beach, Calif., is often quoted as a green expert in articles. Included in her recent conversation:

•Bamboo products are probably the biggest example of greenwashing. Even though bamboo is a rapidly renewable resource, chemicals are used to varying degrees to make the products.

Some companies do a better job than others, she says, citing Nandina, the maker of bamboo and organic cotton blend towels (see www.nandina.info for a list of suppliers), as one of the better manufacturers.

•If you want to go green, cleaning products are the best way to start. Try Seventh Generation, Method and tried-and-true vinegar.

•An important step, LaPlante says, is using organic bedding and mattresses because of their absence of harmful chemicals.

Green can look luxurious, she says. An example is the Q Collection in New York (www.q collection.com).

•The recession has affected many people’s willingness to go green, LaPlante acknowledges.

“It’s more expensive,” she says. “But someday, hopefully five to 10 years from now, the term green won’t be used. It will be a policy.”