NEW YORK— When Italian architect and industrial designer Anna Castelli Ferrieri died at age 87 three years ago, the New York Times ended its obituary with a snippet from her writings: "I continue on my own way, conscious of the responsibility I take upon myself whenever I add a new presence to an already overcrowded physical world." Ferrieri may not have been any kind of spokesperson for sustainability — her medium of choice was plastic — but her words could easily serve as a mantra for the current craze for environmentally conscious design. Forget "Go green" and other such facile abstractions. What better impetus could there be to recycle, reuse, and generally proceed ethically when creating objects than to ponder that "already overcrowded physical world"?

This week, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York ponders this, in opening the aggressively au courant exhibition "Design for a Living World." Lately there's been a bevy of shows devoted to all things green, but this one takes it a step further, with the imprimatur of the Nature Conservancy. Here's the conceit: The Conservancy sent 10 designers — Yves Béhar, Stephen Burks, Hella Jongerius, Maya Lin, Christien Meindertsma, Isaac Mizrahi, Abbott Miller, Ted Muehling, Kate Spade, and Ezri Tarazi — to fragile ecosystems around the world and asked them not only to use local materials but also to collaborate with local producers. Their designs, as well as video interviews documenting their processes and glass vitrines stocked with samples of their materials of choice, are arrayed on the second floor of the Cooper-Hewitt from May 14 to January 4, 2010.

For a peek at a few of their responsible, sustainable, and often stunning designs, check out the following slide show.