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Making Green Design Good Design
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Making
Green Design Good Design:
Green Home and Lifestyle Consultant
Maggie Wood on sustainable interior design
Some still believe that
good interior design isn’t green, and green interior
design isn’t good. Consultant Maggie Wood sheds some light on how to be
both and what it really means to be green. |
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What influenced you to go
green?
It must have been my childhood growing up eating out of my family’s
organic garden, because I’ve been
living “green” my whole life. While in architecture school, I constantly
challenged myself to introduce sustainability into my projects—which may
be the norm now—but was unheard of by
my professors at the time. I started my green consulting firm soon after
graduate school and here I am.
Does sustainable design go with some décors
over others?
Green design is not a color or a style of design.
It’s the integrated design process and the thinking that goes into the
project that makes it green. In other words, it’s what you can’t see
that counts! I’ve seen exceptional examples of green décor in modern
high-rises, historic farmhouses, and Hamptons mansions.
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What percentage of
the interior design
market is green?
It’s hard to judge right now because the market is changing so rapidly,
but I would say that we’re moving
towards the point of green saturation within the next decade.
So far, what has the public response been to
green
interior design?
As I imagined it would one day, green design is fundamentally changing
the design world. The public is extremely interested in creating
efficient, healthy and environmentally sensible projects, and it’s now a
matter of educating the design community to keep up with that
demand, and the swift movement of the green products industry.
What would you consider the most important
aspect of green interior design?
Oh, that’s a hard question because it’s pretty much impossible to
isolate the one most important aspect. Green design is really about a
holistic approach to design- taking into consideration many elements,
including energy, materials and health. In our projects, we look at
everything through those lenses and are constantly making choices that
we feel will best suit our client and their green project goals.
What role does lighting play in your design
process?
Lighting plays a key role in the integrated green design process. It
influences the architectural design, as well as space planning and the
design of the interiors. When considering lighting,
we have to strike that very important balance of efficiency,
functionality and beauty.
What do you feel are the advantages of using
fluorescent lighting?
Using energy-efficient lighting such as fluorescents is certainly a
priority when designing green interiors. There are many advantages for
the client: lower electricity bills and long-life bulbs. And advantages
for the planet: less pollution produced from carbon based fuel
(especially coal, which accounts for 50% of our national electricity
production). Along with the increased use of fluorescents, however, we
do need to develop more extensive fluorescent bulb recycling systems and
better public education regarding proper disposal and clean-up in the
case of shattered bulbs. (This is due to the mercury content in the
bulbs.)
For more information on the proper disposal of fluorescent bulbs,
click here > |
When using new appliances in your projects, do you look for the ENERGY
STAR logo? |
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Absolutely. It’s a quick and simple way to
ensure that a fixture or appliance meets certain
standards for energy efficiency. So many products carry the ENERGY STAR
logo now that it’s never a case of having to compromise aesthetics or
performance.
What’s your favorite green tip?
For interiors, my favorite tip would be the easy things that you can do
to make your project green- like specifying no and low- VOC paints and
finishes, and using reclaimed materials. You can make a project green on
any scale and budget.
If you could make people do just one thing to
move them towards sustainable living, what would that step be?
The one thing I would encourage people to do is to raise their overall
consciousness about their lives- whether that means thinking more
carefully about the energy they use on a daily basis, or considering
where their food comes from. It usually takes just one change to get the
ball rolling. New parents are perfect examples of this: even if they’ve
never considered sustainable living before, they’re now concerned about
the world their children will be raised in. They overhaul their homes
with non-toxic green interiors, insist on all organic food, and trade in
their gas guzzler for a fuel-efficient automobile.
Is there anything I missed that you would like
to convey?
I guess I’d like the last word on this to be that green is one big gray
area. There’s a lot of greenwashing within the industry, and confusion
among the public. We still have a ways to go in terms of educating each
sector, but in the end, green design is the approach to design that will
carry us into the future. I hope one day we’ll no longer call it “green”
design and we’ll just call it “good” design!
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Maggie Wood, M.S., LEED AP, founder and
principal of her namesake green consulting firm, is a recognized expert
in the field of green design, and has been a leader at the forefront of
the movement for many years. She is a LEED Accredited Professional, a
member of the U.S. Green Building Council, and a subject editor for
Green Home Guide. |
Maggie Wood Design
www.maggiewood.com
info@maggiewood.com |
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