Regulations, Programs, and Organizations.

            The whole world has started to address sustainability in some way. Either through recognizing there needs to be a change or actually establishing change governments, organizations, and agencies have been developing policies, laws, regulations, and building codes regarding sustainable practices. One regulation that is the basis for protecting the environment is NEPA or the Nation Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Some main goals of this act include preventing or eliminated damage to the environment and biosphere, to stimulate health and welfare of people, to Enright the understanding of ecological systems and the importance of natural resources, and to establish the council on Environmental Quality. As sustainability encompasses so many aspects I will further explore acts, laws, and regulations that affect sustainability.

            Water and energy are two very important components that have a large impact on a buildings ability to be sustainable. The Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1977 and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974 are two of the most important legislations created to protect the quality of water. They strive to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters, provide the protection and propagation for fish shellfish, and wildlife, provide for recreation in and on the water, and prohibit the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts. It is important to be aware of this act as an interior designer as you may be working with a business that discharges pollutants and you must be aware if they are doing so in water. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) of 1975 introduced a array of important federal environmental legislation related to energy conservation. Including a national energy plan in the United States stating to encourage energy conservation and efficiency, promote alternative and renewable energy sources, reduce dependency on foreign sources of energy, increase domestic production, modernize the electricity grid, and encourage the expansion of nuclear energy.  Interior designers can be aware of the energy crisis, incorporate energy efficient practices into a design and in return help prevents crisis in the United States and around the world.

            Not only do the United States address energy and the environment in their legislation, the United Nations is an excellent resource for initiation environmental programs. The UN has an UN Environmental Program (UNEP), which helps coordinate a global environmental assessment process. Another international sources are the World Green Building Council (World GBC). The World GBC has a vision that, “through leadership collaboration, the global construction industry will transform traditional building practices and fully adopt sustainability as means by which our environments thrive, economies prosper, and societies grow to ensure the future health of our planet”. World GBC also partners with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development that promotes and finds solutions to achieve a zero-net energy challenge.

            There are so many agencies, organizations, programs, and legislation around the world and locally. It is important for interior designers to be aware of these practices to not only incorporate into their designs but also work with business and companies that promote these practices. In order to achieve a sustainable world every person needs to recognize, act, and practice sustainable practices in their everyday lives and businesses.

*Information received from: Sustainable design for interior environments . (2nd ed.). Fairchild Books.

Sustainable Strategies For Lighting Systems.

            There are many direct and indirect benefits to incorporating sustainable lighting systems into a design. Increasing the amount of daylight in a room can increase productivity and overall well being of a person as well as reducing the need to consume energy related to electrical lighting. However to reach the optimal lighting system one needs to incorporate both natural and electrical systems.

Daylight:

            Daylight, rather than direct sunlight, is the most desirable source of light. Daylight is a soft, indirect, diffused light that avoids glare, harsh shadows, and heat gain. One of the most effective approaches to integrate daylight into a design is daylight harvesting. Daylight harvesting is locating a site that can provide optimum daylight, including latitude, topography, trees, and adjacent buildings. To increase daylight into building the building should be narrow to allow daylight to penetrate as many rooms as possible. Windows should be located on the south side of a building, followed by the north side. This placement of windows will allow a building to receive the highest quality of light through out the year and will prevent the building to be hit by the sunrise and set which can increase a undesirable solar heat gain. Windows can be located on either the side of the house or the top of the house. Windows on the top of a hose or skylights can help provide a more an even distribution and continuous source of daylight. Windows on the side of a house should be deeply recessed and placed in a bilateral arrangement, or across from one another. Daylight should be controllable to increase comfort in a room and decrease glare and solar heat gain. Internal devices like blinds, fabrics, or skylight tension systems can be used to control sunlight. Outdoor devices like overhangs, fins, louvers, and double skin systems can be used to control daylight from the exterior of a building.

Electrical sources:

            The main goal of a sustainable design in lighting is to design a lighting system that works in unity with the variability of daylight. It is first important to understand what will tasks will be done in a room to better determine what kind of light will be needed. To incorporate sustainability into electrical lighting systems ones should routinely clean and relamp electoral light sources, research sustainable lamps, and place lamps in a way that will contribute positively to a room. Some sustainable lamps include fluorescent, high-intensity discharge, and light-emitting diodes (LEDS) or organic light emitting diodes (OLED). LED and OLED are the most effective and efficient. Placement of the light is also important and can affect the quantity of illumination needed within an area and contributes to the overall user satisfaction. Overall it is important to integrate both natural daylight and electrical light to allow a building to perform in a usable way.

*Information received from:,Sustainable design for interior environments . (2nd ed.). Fairchild Books.

Indoor Environmental Quality

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is a very important aspect when designing the interior of a room. IEQ can affect people in both negative and positive ways as well as mentally, like increasing productivity, or physically, like producing cancer. Thus it is important to take into account all aspect that may affect indoor air quality and health including daylight, ventilation, temperature, humidity, noise, electrical light sources, and personal control of a setting.

Schools and the work place are good examples to look at IEQ, as many people spend a lot of time at these locations. To improve the indoor air quality in schools and to enhance students outcomes a designer should provide an ample and pleasant view, create a glare free writing surfaces and shad from direct sunlight, provide window treatments to control glare, provide an effective acoustical environment that eliminates annoying noise or excess sounds from outside the room, provide proper ventilation, and provide satisfactory physical characteristics like windows. Office space interiors should provide all of what was listed above for school and in addition to providing controllable settings like heat and cooling. This will provide a comfortable setting for people to work in and in return increase their productivity.

As there are many ways to increase IEQ, I am going to address a select few that I find most important for a project I have coming up. This will include reducing noise pollution, reducing glare, and increasing a desirable view to the outdoors. There are many things that affect the noise in a room including outside factors like people talking in the hallway or humming from an HVAC system. Some solutions to reducing noise include installing sound absorbing materials in between walls and directly onto walls. In terms of equipment and HVAC systems the interior designer should look into quiet HVAC lighting systems and isolating loud equipment so it is less distracting. Glare is another important IEQ aspect to address as it can decrease productivity and comfort if distracting light or glare is present. Some strategies to help reduce glare include installing window treatments, using less dark surfaces that will intensify the glare contrast, and making sure a window or spot is not directly conflicting with a work surface. Views from a window are another important factor to consider as a pleasant view can make a person feel more happy and thus increase their productivity and comfort ability. As much daylight should be provided into a room but sometimes providing as many windows as you can may produce some not so pleasant views. An interior designer should take this into account when planning window placement. If there will be a direct view into another building or into a parking garage for example the designer should make that window smaller, thus decreasing the unpleasant view while still providing natural daylight.

*Information received from: Sustainable design for interior environments . (2nd ed.). Fairchild Books.

Sustainable Finishes and Furnishings.

When integrating sustainable into a design finishes and furnishings can have a significant impact. One way to conserve resources when designing an interior is to specify materials is to reuse as many materials as possible. This entails thoroughly looking at the finishes in a room, like the flooring, and determine if they can be reused, like sanding down and refinishing the floors.  If reusing what is already there is not an option the next best option is to use as less of the material as possible. Thus a room should be designed to best match the standardized sizing of products. For example when designing a room in which carpet squares will be used the designer should match the floor plan in correspondence to the size of the carpet squares so none have to be cut down and thrown away. Other strategies to integrate sustainability into a design can include recycled products, chemical free products, and products that take into account the LCA.

Wall Coverings

            For sustainability purposes when choosing wall coverings for interiors one should consider durability, insulating properties, and sound absorbency. It is important to consider durability, like colorfastness or washability, to make sure the product can last as long as possible so it does not end up in a land fill.  All wall coverings should be installed with zero or low-VOC adhesives or tacked to surfaces. Some sustainable wall covering materials include mulberry fibers, linen, cork, honeysuckle vines, cane, raffia, jute, bamboo, and sisal.

Flooring

            There are mainly two options when it comes to flooring: hard or soft. Hard floors can include wood and concrete, while soft floor include carpet. Hard floors can improve a room’s indoor air quality as hard floors do not harbor dust, dirt, or allergens like soft flooring can do. Some sustainable wood flooring includes the use of bamboo, sustainably harvested wood, and reclaimed or remilled wood. Bamboo is peeled away so the material is rapidly renewable, has low embodied energy qualities and also looks aesthetically pleasing.  Reclaimed or remilled wood is recycled material that can add a lot of character to a room. You can either use reclaimed wood in its original state or remilled wood is reprocessed to give a newer look. Concrete floor are another hard flooring option. This flooring can eliminate additional materials used for wood flooring during the installation process. To also reduce the energy impact of concrete flooring one should use fly ash concrete instead of Portland cement. Cork is another sustainable flooring material that is retrieved from the bark of a cork tree. Cork can be used as finished flooring or as an alternative to an underlay for wood flooring.

            Since comfort is an important quality in an interior environment, hard flooring may not always be the go to choice. Soft flooring, like carpet, can provide comfort as well as an aesthetic quality to a room. When choosing carpet it is important to consider an area rug or a whole carpeted room as an area rug will use fewer materials and hold less allergens. However is a whole carpeted room is desired one should consider qualities like durability and color. One should choose carpet made from durable materials and finishes like a high pile and high dimensional stability as well as choose a color that is timeless rather than trendy to ensure a long life of the carpet. When selecting carpet chose carpet that has been refurbished or recycled. A designer should also use natural fibers rather than synthetic fibers as they typically are produced more sustainable and can be repurposed or recycled.

Below are some tun and interesting companies that incorporate sustainability into their product design and manufacturing. I am thinking of using some for an upcoming project! It is always important when choosing sustainable products to research the company and their claims to make sure they are truly doing what they can to help the environment and not just claiming so. 

http://www.themohawkgroup.com

http://kojicollection.com

http://submaterial.com

http://shop.graypants.com

https://www.themomgroup.com

http://uhurudesign.com

*Information received from:,Sustainable design for interior environments . (2nd ed.). Fairchild Books