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Shades of Green
By Lauren
Shadid
A
product sales representative visits your office
and is excited to tell you about their innovative
“Green,” “Sustainable,”
or “Environmental” product.
You:
- Think “Great! I will go back
to my desk and quickly specify this on
my project”.
- Immediately toss the product in the
trash, attempting to avoid anything termed
“sustainable” at all costs.
- Begin an inquisitive dialogue with
the product-rep to learn more about it.
- Call upon one of your local Sustainable
Design Task Members for their recommendation.
If you answered ‘C’
or ‘D’, you are on the road
to successfully reducing your project’s
impact on the environment. The best thing
to do at this point is to take a step back
and look at the big picture. Architects
and designers have an opportunity to have
a much larger impact on the environment
beyond simply calling for a recycled-content
material over virgin goods. While the final
products are important, it is the industries
that produce those products that really
tilt the scales of polluting or enriching
the environment.
The real question is
not, “What makes a product “sustainable”?”,
rather, “What makes a company “sustainable”?
Essentially, do they tread lightly upon
the Earth through their operations?
There are some simple
specific questions that you can ask to help
you decide which companies you choose to
support through your specifications. Where
is the company located? Do they contribute
to suburban sprawl, or do they operate in
a community which fosters public-transportation
/ carpooling for their workers. Do they
have local manufacturing / distribution
which helps reduce the amount of fuel /
transportation required to get the product
to your job-site? (This is a factor in the
Embodied Energy of a material). How is packaging
handled for shipping once delivery has occurred?
How do they manage waste within their production
process? Is recycling of material, fuel
and water implemented? How is their facility
powered? Have they taken steps to reduce
the amount of pollution caused by their
manufacturing? Do they take steps to use
recycled paper / material for their promotional
literature, AND do they support methods
other than junk mail for advertising such
as electronic notices? Do they offer a buy-back
program for removing and recycling their
product after the useful life? Essentially,
what natural resources are used to make
this so-called green product and any of
their other products? Does the manufacturing
process of the “green” material
actually require the consumption of more
natural resources than the product’s
counterpart in virgin goods?
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Keep in mind that few
things produced by man on this earth are
100% sustainable, so while it is important
to try to specify recycled content or recyclable
materials, it is even more crucial to support
manufacturers that are really trying to
walk the talk and not just tout a product’s
“green” merits. It is important
to recognize that there are various “shades
of green.” This is where architects
and designers have the greatest opportunity
to have a positive impact on the environment.
The road to green is often an uphill battle,
therefore it is critical that companies
attempting to make a difference receive
our support.
Some companies will
be overwhelmed with these kinds of questions,
for while they may have interest in operating
in a more sustainable fashion, there may
be certain industrial or technological limitations
to their processes. Obviously, small companies
have more limited resources than the larger
manufacturers. We shouldn’t be so
naive as to hold them to the same expectations
as “Interfaces” of the world.
Still, we should encourage them to make
gestures, even if they start out seemingly
ever-so-small.
For example, I recently
received a holiday card from Herman Miller.
The card was printed on 100% recycled content
paper. Rather than adding to the mountain
of trinkets and redundant literature that
I receive from so many manufacturers (which
often ends up in the trash), they decided
to put their money to good use and make
a donation in my name to a charity of my
choice from the four they offered. This
is not to suggest that this is the only
gesture that this company is making; however
they still deserve to be commended. Making
sustainable choices is something that needs
to trickle down to the most mundane aspects
of a business to be truly effective. Often
a turn towards green means more green in
their pocket. Encourage business associates
who are skeptical to read Paul Hawken’s
The Ecology of Commerce to find out more.
Some companies such
as carpet manufacturer Interface and furniture
manufacturer Wilkhahn actually publish information
about their eco-activities. They have been
proactive in developing in-house audits
of their systems, operations and distribution
methods and seek opportunities to improve
upon the efficiency and sustainability of
those methodologies. Both of the companies
will readily admit that while they may be
pioneers in the sustainable realm, they
recognize that there continue to be opportunities
where they can do more. The idea is that
as a whole, they continue to research and
implemented solutions to effect less of
an impact on the environment.
In the end, walking-the-talk
works both ways. It is up to the manufacturer
to run their operation with sustainable
goals, but it is up to us as architects
and designers to recognize and support these
companies for those efforts to make any
difference.
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