Two of the winning projects of a major green refurbishment award scheme have highlighted potential ways of making kitchens more eco-friendly.Run by Building magazine, the award aimed to recognise renovations designed with green goals in mind.Kitchens in the London office of Morgan Lovell were revamped to include work surfaces made of recycled packaging products.Elsewhere, the head office of the Simons Group, a rainwater harvesting system was installed to reduce the consumption of this precious resource.Homeowners can take a lead from this kind of innovation by installing water filters into their kitchen sink plumbing to reduce the amount of water used in a traditional jug filter, for example.In addition, a food waste disposer unit could lessen the impact of organic matter entering the water system.As part of its drive to make the nation more green, the government recently launched a series of initiatives to lower waste across Britain.One of the tips given was to use leftover food from dinner to make lunches for the working day with both important financial and environmental benefits.