Green Eggs and Ham

Office design is going to evolve as our world becomes "green". I wish I had a crystal ball but, in my lifetime, I have never seen such a sensitivity about our planet and what we are going to leave for generations to come. In a relatively short period of time it seems like, rather suddenly we are interested in or worried about:

• Global Warming
• Total ecosystems
• Shredding our rain forests
• Fish populations
• Energy Sources
  • Oil
  • Wind
  • Nuclear
  • Solar
  • Hydrogen
• Plants and animal life cycle changes
• Recycling of most materials
• And on, and on

So, what does this mean for interior environments? Quite a bit.
It means we must be concerned about how light and solar energy is used. It means we must be concerned about air quality. We must think about healthcare too and the human body. We are affected by lighting, seating, sound, ergonomics and other factors that affect the health of humans.

We must consider all the products we use - are they recyclable? Are they re-usable (a la carpets). Do they give off emissions which can be harmful? Where are they built? What materials go into them? What sources of labor do they employ? How do they affect sound? How do they use light, positively or negatively?

Those of us who plan and furnish interiors are part of the entire family of factors that directly or indirectly will have an impact on our world. Just think of the atmosphere - did you know that it is so thin if you wrapped a basketball in saran wrap, the atmosphere would equal the depth of the saran wrap? Anything we use in interior environments that "off-gasses" directly affects that ever so thin layer of air we depend on for life. Yes, even paint can be a negative contributor - something we never would have thought about ten years ago.

We have a lot to learn if we are to be good stewards of our environment and we are just learning about the tip of the iceberg. I know personally I have very little knowledge about all of the green, sustainable, cradle to cradle issues and opportunities. I am aware of many things, but not knowledgeable. We all must move from awareness to knowledge in order to meet our professional duties. Keep learning and sharing, we must help each other learn in these suddenly new and important topics if we are to leave our planet better than what we inherited.

posted by Scott Messmore @ Tuesday, August 26, 2008   0 comments