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Go Green
Sustainable Desgin FAQ
Commerical Designers' Guide
Residential Designers' Guide
Green Tips: A Basic Guide for Residential Designers
by Lucinda Jennings, ASID, and Victoria Schomer, ASID
The prevalence of sustainable design projects has increased multi-fold, due in part to the growth of the U.S. Green Building Council, comprised of member organizations such as architectural and engineering firms, design firms, contractors and developers; federal, state, and local government agencies; and professional associations like ASID, AIA, ASLA, and IIDA. The introduction of the LEED™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Building Ratings System has set an industry standard for green building design. A new LEED™ for Commercial Interiors (CI) rating system is now in the pilot phase, intended for tenant improvement projects in existing buildings.
With this significant professional move toward specifying and building healthy buildings and interiors that offer superior indoor air quality and energy efficiency, it should be no surprise that sustainable design is considered to be the fastest growing segment of our industry.
Residential designers have the opportunity to design, re-design or re-furnish homes with environmentally friendly products and materials that can actually have a healthy impact on clients and the planet. The following are some basic sustainable design practices for residential designers to consider as they incorporate sustainable practices into their work.
- Make a more ecologically sound choice of wood from a supplier who can verify through a chain of custody that the original trees came from an ecologically sustainable forest managed under guidelines of the Forest Stewardship Council.
- Specify "green" paint and other finishing materials that have documented levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or chemical emitting materials, that are the lowest levels possible, and the rate of their emissions -- or dissipation -- is as fast as possible.
- Specify paints and finishes that do not contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
Specify sustainable fabrics that support the use of materials from rapidly renewable, post-consumer or post-industrial sources. - Use rapidly renewable flooring products such as bamboo or linoleum to help reduce the amount of land and resources dedicated to producing construction materials.
- Specify energy-efficient appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators with the EnergyStar™ rating.
- Design around standard product sizes to reduce material waste.
- Consider the recyclability of all materials used to redirect their "next life" away from landfills.
Some products once referred to as "natural" are now known to have toxic qualities. For instance, pesticides are used to grow cotton and some wool is cleaned with dangerous chemicals during processing. With the help of new government labeling requirements, better tools and information about these products are becoming more available as well as a new vocabulary that can be useful to investigate materials and products for interior projects