Water, Water Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink

As a designer I have always specified Kohler or Sterling products because they are well made, beautiful products and made in America. Their faucets, sinks and toilets have been  on the cutting edge
of  technology for conserving water. In taking some courses in LEED certification a few years ago, I learned that “Kohler has been concerned since the 1970’s about water conservation and have global teams of engineers working to improve water efficiency with beautiful designs, excellent performance and keeping them affordable.”

Kohler’s faucets have water saving aerators. The faucets with the WaterSense label will save over 14,700 gallons of water each year, unlike older faucets.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program reviews manufacturers products and gives awards to those whose products conserve water. In 2008, Kohler was named as a Manufacturing Partner in the WaterSense program. To obtain this prestigious award, there must be demonstrated overall excellence in the water-efficiency arena as well as increase the awareness and advance the overall mission of WaterSense. So why would a plumbing manufacturer get involved in this?

In their brochure, Kohler states “that less than 1 percent of the world’s water supply is accessible for human use. Nearly one billion people in the world lack safe drinking water.” By the year 2013, at least 36 states in the United States anticipates local, regional or statewide water shortages.

Toilets account for 25 percent of daily indoor water use in homes in the United States. Out of that, one-half of all toilets in homes in United States are older, less efficient models, which waste approximately 1.6 billion gallons of water each day. For a single individual, a High Efficiency Toilet can save 16,500 gallons of water a year.

What does this mean to you?

If you are paying for your water, multiply the rate they are charging you by 16,500 (per toilet in your house), and that is how much you could save by replacing your toilet. Do the same with the faucets you have in your house. If for no other reason than saving money, it is worth changing out your old toilets and faucets.

Altruistically, by conserving water we all work towards a better future for our families and our children’s children. After all, 2013 is not that far away. Kohler, in addition to creating water conserving products, also reclaims and reuses the rise water in their faucet facility and product testing labs, thereby saving millions of gallons of water.

Do you believe in doing business primarily with those companies that practice and produce environmentally conscious products? Are you thinking about replacing any of your toilets or faucets in the near future? Will you consider WaterSense labeled products?

Gold Certified for Art: Is Your City’s Art Museum LEED Certified?

In the news, most of what we see about the Midwest details how poor Michigan is doing economically. Yet, when you look at sustainability, Michigan is leading the nation. Green design has been going on in Grand Rapids for the past 16 years and has been championed by retired Steelcase chairman Peter Wege. They even have a journal, Grand Rapids Business Journal, that compiles volumes of information on sustainable business practices, building reuse or restoration methods to bio-economy businesses.

Western Michigan has more LEED certified buildings per capita than any other region in the country. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is not only the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified art museum in the United States, but also in the world. It is not just a LEED certified building, but it is a Gold certified building.

When a building is certified green, it does not just refer to the materials used in the building. It also considers operational functioning. Anyone who has ever designed for an art museum knows that there are very exacting climate standards to maintain the artwork in pristine condition. Green features include energy-efficient lighting, use of natural light, heating and cooling systems, and recycling systems for water and paper supplies.

The water collection system is able to reduce the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s demand for water by 20 percent. So in addition to using less water, they will be paying for less city water, which affects their operational costs. Natural lighting was used in 70 percent of the museum’s space and courtyards that can be viewed from the museum are planted with indigenous plants and trees.

Green educational programs and activities are offered as part of LEED requirements. Even the gift store has environmentally friendly retail items e.g. items made from recycled paper and organic cotton clothing are just a couple of items.

In addition to these factors, consideration was also given to where the museum would be located so that transportation to the museum would be easily accessible to public transportation or commute by bike.

Do you have a LEED certified project in your region?

Hidden Charitable Companies: Kohler

When searching out some product inquiries on Kohler’s site the other day I was surprised to learn that they are so much more than just bath fixtures and faucets.

This privately held company has four very separate and distinct divisions. The Kitchen and Bath Group manufactures water-saving products for conserving water and utilizing recycled materials. The Interiors Group consists of businesses like Ann Sacks, McGuire Furniture, Baker Furniture and Kallista – four well-known names in the Interiors program.

As a company focused on environmental issues, many of the tiles within the Ann Sacks line are sustainable. McGuire Furniture has designed furniture that uses renewable natural products, like the water hyacinth fibers, in their Copenhagen lounge chair and ottoman. Global Power Group focuses on decreasing emissions and improving air quality and their Hospitality and Real Estate Group has preserved vast acres of wildlife habitats.

Regardless of which division you are working with, there is a sense of responsibility to their communities and our global environment. They talk about their “corporate environmental, and the health and safety considerations in all company activities.”

Kohler talks about their goal to have an environmental footprint that nets zero by 2035. To achieve this, they started working on reducing their dependency on natural gas back in the 1970’s. They reuse the heat from their kilns (which bake on the enamel finishes on the sinks & toilets) to heat their facility. When making cast iron tubs, rather than use new mined materials, they use their foundry to melt recycled metals and reclaimed materials. They recycle wood, corrugated materials, paper, waste oil, machine coolants, batteries, electronics and light bulbs rather than send them off to their on-site landfill. When they develop new facilities, Kohler use green building principles and incorporate green spaces with each facility design.

Let me continue filling you in on some of the surprising information that I learned about Kohler. Kohler’s has donated approximately 43,000 kitchen and bath products to Habitat for Humanity homes. They donate products to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and have charitable contribution programs that are concerned with education and preservation of the environment in every community they manufacture in.

Kohler has won awards for their gardens not only on their manufacturing facility locations, but also throughout their communities. The gardens are designed to encourage the wildlife in the areas, e.g. plants to feed hummingbirds and butterflies. So much for me thinking this is a little company in the hills of Wisconsin just focusing on making quality products.

Do you know of other corporations – public or private – that focus on green space design and manufacturing?

Art and Environmentally Conscious – Lumicor

Design solutions come about in unexpected ways. That was the case when I discovered Lumicor. The company creates innovative translucent materials encapsulating textiles, metals, papers, foliage, and imagination. I became aware of Lumicor when choosing wall scones for a client’s office. Lumicor products blend handmade paper with two sheets of resin to creat what the client described as “glowing art.”

They create from what we discard. The elements in architectural resin panels are made from recycled glass, organic and recycled fabrics, and botanicals harvested from sustainable crops.

The Lumiclear product has the same translucency as glass but is half the weight as the same size panel and has 10 times the impact strength. It can be formed into unique and complex shapes. So instead of using the same old 2 x 4 lighting fixtures, consider a luminous ceiling with the color and textures that reflect your style.

Or perhaps you can use panels between areas in your facility that allow the light to meander through the panels, creating subtle divisions that also have texture and color. By adding decorative elements, you can create a phenomenal countertop for a kitchen that is durable, non-porous and resistant to UV damage.

In their creation of architectural resin panels, Lumicor has also established a reuse protocol that saves more than 21 million gallons of fresh water each year by using a closed loop system. They also reuse the heat created in the manufacturing of their products to heat their facility.

Beyond all of this, Lumicor has developed a network of recycling facilities around the United States. When I look for companies that push the envelope of innovative products, it is nice to know that some care about our resources and are as innovative in their manufacturing processes as they are with their materials.

Would you consider using this product as a countertop? Have you found a company that is innovative in design and regarding resources?

This House Is In the Water, Intentionally

Somewhere in the middle of January I began thinking about warm, sunny locations to visit. I think it is an instinctive reaction to Midwestern cold and snowy winters, but Ageatic blue green water brings joy to my heart and serenity to my being.

When looking for a retreat, most of us look for a house on the beach so we are just a few feet from the water’s edge. For some of us, San Diego, Naples or the Carolina’s may be our destinations; others of us like to travel to islands of the Caribbean.

Two Polish architects, Jedrzej Lewandowski and Lukasz Skirzynski, of FORMDesign, an architectural and interior design firm, have taken their new design right into the water. Their project may be an eco-tourist destination. They have designed a single-family rental unit that is going to be located in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Zante Island in Greece.

This house is designed to have a counterweighted system that also utilizes seabed pilings and will be powered by solar panels on the roof (110 of them). The architects have used Corian as the white finish on this minimalist project that has a concrete and steel structural core. The white the surface of the Corian will allow light to bounce within the structure to create a feeling of illumination without using any energy. The vertical lines of the rails on the exterior are for another amenity – the shading system that is computer driven in addition to the radiation-reducing filters in the curtain glass walls.

The design will also be utilizing bouncing lighting from the exterior and underwater lights, which will be refracted through the water to reflect into the interior for evening lighting. LEDs and CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) will be used minimally for interior lighting throughout the project. Another aspect they have considered is having an interior garden. Whether it be green plants or vegetables, it will provide purification of the air within the structure as well as aesthetic beauty.

The project is said to have “eco-friendly features like the water desalination, energy accumulation, ventilation methods, water recycling, and tidal and solar energy systems.”

Would this be a destination of choice for you? What do you think of this design?

Lighting Portrays History and Artistic Collaboration

So many times we hear about downtown area falling into neglect. We hear of abandoned buildings not transformed and given a second life, but destroyed for something new to be build where an architectural relic once stood. That the dirty gritty industrial sites that are located next to waterways are not the type of sites that can be reborn.

While the city of Buffalo abandoned grain elevators stood empty, Quebec City used their elevator complex as a giant video screen. In celebration of their 400th anniversary, they told their history in a unique and special way. As part of their celebration, they created a light and image show that was forty minutes in length and was projected onto the surfaces of their grain elevators in the Port of Quebec. .

There are 81 grain elevators in the Port of Quebec. The elevators measure 600 meters long by 30 meters tall. The technical sheets says it took twenty seven video projectors, 329 speakers, 574 lighting fixtures using LED’s, 2 lighting boards operating in redundancy, 1.4 kilometers of fiber optic cables, 6 km of DMX cables and 4km of power cables in addition to 160 aluminum supports fused to the membrane of the roof of the grain elevators. It created what has been described as a sensory experience with an animated mosaic that will include engravings, paintings, photos and videos. This visual work of art was divided into four time frames representing the four centuries of Quebec’s history including the waterways, the age of exploration and discovery, road building, clearing and developing the land, the railroad and industrial expansion, and the age of air travel and the development of communications

The men that made this phenomenal project come together were René Lussier, who composed the soundtrack, Robert Lepage and Ex Machina, whose theatrical work is world renown and includes a permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas, and Martin Gagnon’s lighting firm Ambiances Lighting and Visual Design, established in 2006. The firm believes that lighting is essential in human perception of their surrounding environment and their experience. It was the close collaboration of these three and hundreds of designers, technicians and work crews that made the science of lighting become art for approximately 5,000 people a night.

A permanent lighting installation, the Aurora Borealis, is in place and again utilizes the old port grain elevators. This show is a movement of light reflecting the beauty of nature inspired by the aurora borealis. The show will run every night from dusk until 11:30pm from now until 2013. Would you attend a show like this if it were in or near your city? What do you think of the use of architectural buildings for this kind of artistic presentation?

How to Save Water with Your Toilets

Looking for ways to save money on your water bill? Or do you have to replace your toilet soon? Have you considered going “green” with your replacement?

Depending on how old your home or office is will determine what gallons per flush (gpf) your current toilet is. I would recommend consulting with a licensed plumber or engineer to determine how to save the most water with your replacement fixture. If you are in an office building, water-use reduction calculations can be done that are determined by the number of full-time, part-time, and transient’s occupants.

If you have decided to install a water-saving toilet, there are several options that may work for you. The standard water closet is 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf); this is what the majority of people are going to have in their homes and offices.

If you are looking to save more water than this without making a big change, then the duel flush toilet might be the option for you! This allows for the user to select if a half-flush or full flush is needed to dispose of the waste. Most residential duel flush toilets have 2 buttons on the top and you can select which one is needed. Many commercial buildings have a lever that you either push up or down. Often a sign with pictures is posted to tell you which way is which. Sometimes a green handle is installed as an indicator that this fixture is different than the norm.

If you are looking to save water without the complication of selecting with button or lever you need, then a high-efficiency, single flush gravity toilet that is 1.28 gpf may be the option for you. This uses less water than the conventional toilet but still works great! The lowest water consumption toilet option would be a single-flush, pressure assist that is 1.0 gpf.

Now, if you are really “green,” a nonwater toilet may be perfect for you, in so many words that is a compost toilet. This is only for those that really want to be the most environmentally friendly. There are special cleaning instructions and maintenance procedures for this toilet. Personally, I am very environmentally friendly, but I wouldn’t be caught cleaning this toilet!

If you choose to replace your current toilet with a water-saving fixture, make sure to have a preventative maintenance program set-up. This includes plumbing fixture and fitting inspection to find any leaks or sensor issues. This will make sure that your flush and/or flow is appropriate at all times to save you the most water possible

Have you tried any of these alternative toilets? Which is your favorite? Would you ever consider choosing a compost toilet?

Lighting Energy: Concerns About Mercury

Osram Sylvania, a major manufacturer of lamps used in lighting fixtures, took their second telephone poll of more than 300 homeowners and renters. The poll, which was done in November 2009, had the results issued in December 2009.

Now, this may not be as important as the U.S. census, but it did show that many of us want to save money on our lighting through efficient lamps. We are also interested in what they are made of and how it may affect our planet. This interest by the public may well be of interest to other manufacturers; the public’s views are not micro but macro, as we do understand that there is interconnectivity in the choices we make.

Osram Sylvania found that three out of four consumers had switched to the energy efficient lamps we know as compact fluorescent. The survey also showed that though compact fluorescent lamps were the overall favorite choice by the public. There were, however, serious concerns about the mercury found in these lamps. Lamps with mercury are considered hazardous waste items and are not to be thrown in the trash to go into landfills.

What was a surprise in this survey was the fact that the public did not know about the legislation that had been introduced and pasted requiring phase out of incandescent lamps by 2014. With the United States being the major consumer of incandescent lamps, the phase out would reduce the demand for incandescent by 1/3.

Experts say that by changing to compact fluorescent from incandescent, this could lead to a drop in energy demands and close 80 coal fired power plants because compact fluorescent lamps use 75% less energy. The phase out of 100w incandescent lamps is scheduled for 2012.

Americans are not the only people being asked to change over to compact fluorescent lamps. In February 2007, Australia instituted a mandatory program to phase out incandescent lighting by 2010. Great Britain announced, approximately six months later, a voluntary initiative to change over by 2011. The British officials estimate they will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 5.5 million tons annually just by changing from incandescent to compact fluorescents.

Did you know about the legislation phasing out incandescent? Did you know there was mercury in fluorescent lamps? Did you realize there was that kind of energy efficiency in a compact fluorescent?

Sustainable Desk Chairs

Did you know that many Contract Furniture Companies have been leading the way in sustainability for many years? They are very innovative and forward thinking in the development on their products. The company may choose to have a Life Cycle Assessment done on each chair design before they even produce it.

A Life Cycle Assessment is evaluating the chair’s lifelong impact on the environment, from the chair’s production to the time we throw it away ten or fifteen years down the road. During Life Cycle Assessment, the following may be taken into consideration: the impact on global warming, acid rain, eutrophication (loss of plants and animals in aquatic ecosystems due to loss of oxygen after algae blooms ,which are caused by pollution), air pollution, resource depletion, land and water toxicity and waste. Can you believe that a simple desk chair can possibly affect us and the earth in all these ways?

As you can see, many things are taken into consideration on how sustainable a product really is. Here are just a few things that you may want to look for before purchasing your new desk chair.

Materials: What materials are put into the chair may be determined based upon their environmental impact. Many chairs today contain a percentage of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content, which can be found in the plastics or even the fabrics!

Toxic Emissions: Next, what toxic emissions may be released during production are taken into account, such as toxic mercury, PVCs, asbestos, solvents, CFCs, PBBs, methylene chloride, formaldehyde or HCFCs. The goal is to have as little or no VOCs emitted during the manufacturing process and the life of the product. So this means that many of these harmful chemicals may continue to be emitted into the air after it has been delivered to your house or office, even after it’s been sitting there for awhile!

Certifications: Some key ways to tell what sustainability measures a company has looked into would be by the certifications a product has received. Some common certifications to look for are: GreenGuard Certification (promotes healthy indoor air quality), Indoor Advantage certification for indoor air quality, Cradle to Cradle certification, and even if it may help contribute towards LEED!

Recycle: Finally, find out if the chair can be recycled when you are finished with it. Many furniture companies offer to recycle the chair for you, but this may require a cost. If you do not have a large quantity of chairs, you may want to consider donating it or selling it. This is just as environmentally friendly as recycling it!

Enjoy your new environmentally friendly desk chair!

Creative and Inexpensive Recycling Projects for Interiors

I think one of the healthiest things you can do to better the environment is using what you have to create something new. Why recreate the entire wheel when you can simply patch it? As garage sale season is around the corner, it’s about time we discuss a few recreation techniques. These are just a few ways to turn a recycling project into a critical part of an interior.

One of the greatest “finds” can be old paintings. These could come from a garage sale, but why not your grandma’s basement? Anywhere you can pick up there are multiple parts that can be used from one find. The actual canvas can always be repainted, but if you are not a Picasso, there are other solutions for reinventing the canvas.

You can always try strip pasting on for size. You could use newspapers, old wrapping paper, paint samples – anything that you can cut into strips and has color. After cutting strips that vary in size you then layer them on the canvas and use simple glue that dries clear. You brush it on in layers until the entire canvas is covered in the desired material. You can either reframe this masterpiece or hang it with no frame.

The frame can always be reused as well. An easy repaint job can make a world of difference. If you are lucky enough to find multiple frames that have different sizes, shapes and textures, you can make them more uniform by painting them the same color. A neutral in a metallic, black or white would work best.

So, now from one “found” piece, you can create many inexpensive new art pieces for your space. Maybe even an entire accent wall! Old mirrors with frames could be used as part of this collage as well. It all depends on what kinds of garage sale finds are available this season.

Another neat piece to keep your eyes peeled for are old records (LPs). Old records, I think, can make the coolest accent wall. You will need many of them, and make sure you are not just going to hang a Beatles White Album on your wall without a frame like I am proposing. Depending on the size of your wall you will need quite a few albums, so if you can find them for five cents a piece you are in good shape. Use goop off or another sticky remover to take off the label.

Pick out some nice looking screws or nails, meaning the head is a good size and attractive shape. From there just arrange them on the wall and make sure all the edges touch. The neatest part about this design is the negative space versus the positive space. Meaning the space between the albums can become the focus, the skewed diamond shape.

Depending on who holds the garage sale, you should be able to take recycled objects and make them something worth while. How have you used recycled objects in your interior?

Next Page »