The Now

I am not an Oprah watcher but I certainly talk to an awful lot of people who are Oprah fans. I am probably really out of the loop and this is old news but I am hearing over and over about these 2 books relating to living in the NOW. Letting go of your ego and other distractions and just being in the now. Not a new concept, in fact very Jungian from what I can gather, but clearly this is impacting people. It is an interesting concept when you combine it with being more environmentally responsible.

If you are in the NOW and not thinking about later or earlier, do you just not care about the impact of your actions on anything? I am living right now so who cares about later? Or do you look at your present actions as right now and then what impact it does have on the future.

For instance. You buy a new fancy computer, like a very, very yummy IMac. The first day you get it, you unbox it, throw away all the packaging and marvel at the design, speed and technology. You cannot fathom that this stunning purchase will one day be your old computer that you cannot wait to get rid of and replace. Is that living in the now or later? How do you do both?

So do you look at the computer and say, when I throw this away, where does it go? According to an article I read in Forbes.com, electronics are the fastest growing solid waste stream in the world. They are not allowed in California landfills and therefore, they are often shipped overseas to junk yards. Waste all over the place. Check out the article "Rehab, Reuse, Recycle" at Forbes.com April 21, 2008. Pretty interesting.

How do you consume today and not trash tomorrow? Planned obsolescence is in seemingly everything we buy. Just get ready to want something newer. And not just because it is newer - it is so often times so much better. Look at the older big huge computer monitors in your office. When they die, you bring in the new flat screen monitors. What a difference. The quality of the screen is better but also, the ergonomics of your desk is so much better. You can work differently, you can pull up to your desk and see the typing on the screen. Clearly an improvement but how do we do this and not just keep junking up the planet.

"Cradle to Cradle" would say that there needs to be planned future in good design.

Furniture Misconceptions

I spoke at the IFMA Green Symposium last week with 3 distinguished other speakers - Danette Ferretti, Kelly Devereaux and Ron Sutliff. One of the key threads through our conversation was a a list of common misconceptions surrounding furniture and LEED.

Buying a specific chair will get you a LEED credit
Greenguard furniture will get you MR credit
Green costs more
Greenguard is the same as LEED
All domestic furniture today is Greenguard
Furniture is a major component to LEED

We addressed and answered the above statement in our presentation -

Buying a specific chair will get you a LEED credit. Nope. LEED is very specific that you can never just buy something to get a point. A specific product does not ever earn a point. The products can contribute to points.

Greenguard furniture will get you MR credit. Nope. Greenguard is about indoor air quality and emissions into the air. MR is about recycled content, reuse, less use etc. Totally different.

Greenguard is the same as LEED. Nope. Greenguard is an independent testing facility and organization that evaluates products. LEED is a voluntary program designed and administered by the US Green Building Council surrounding sustainable building.

All domestic furniture today is Greenguard. Nope. This is an elective test paid by some manufacturers to certify their product. It is becoming more wide spread but initially it was prohibitively expensive for many companies and controversial with some companies. Similarly, we are seeing off shore products starting to get Greenguard interested.

Furniture is a major component to LEED. Nope. It has no direct effect on any points in LEED-NC other than to maybe contribute to recycled content. It has only a minimal effect in LEED-CI, hitting one or the other of two credits, either using Greenguard furniture for the IAQ point or using recycled furniture for an MR credit. Similar to LEED-NC, furniture and movable walls can both contribute to other points such as recycled content or local manufacturing.

There is a lot of mystery in the furniture world but at the end of it all, it is all very simple.

The Impact of Design

Statistics say that the initial design of a space drives 85% of the capital cost of the space and 100% of the occupancy cost of the space. However, design costs less than 5% of the capital cost and less than .33% of the occupancy costs. I had to think about this for a long while, letting it sink in. Basically, the impact of design is huge but the price/cost of design is not so huge. Wouldn't this lend you to think that spending a bit more money on design would make sense since you could maybe decrease your other costs substantially by using better design?

I have been watching art and design and their impact on the world my whole life. I could go on and on and on about it but there is a small part of this big topic that interests me greatly. The public schools that our kids go to have cut and cut to the point where art and design no longer exist as important educational topics. They are not considered basic educational needs and in order to keep math and English in the schools, our kids are doing without art and design. So, it goes to say that we are raising generations of kids that have never really been educated in design or art and some really have not exposure to art and design. As these kids grow up and become heads of companies, they are missing design and art as core understandings unless they miraculously are interested or have taken a college course in art. Therefore, the ones that are controlling the big corporate dollars are not spending or wanting to spend money on design because they may not know the impact?

The world certainly sees good design and bad design every day. Design is everywhere but is it noticed as design or just image. The Apple Stores - nice design right? It effects your experience right? I walked into the UTC Apple Store last week and was astounded by the design. This isn't even one of their flagship masterpieces and it was cool. A guy in flip flops helped me buy a time capsule in under 3 minutes, emailing me the receipt and sticking a cool little sticker that said "lucky you" so the guard at the door knew I had bought the product. All of that is customer experience and all of it is based on good design. Look at your experience walking into WalMart versus Costco. Totally different set ups, totally different designs. Does it affect you? Why does my husband like going to Costco so much, and I am sure that he is not the only guy that actually likes going to Costco.

When you walk into a workplace, you have an initial reaction - it may be about the aesthetics, the colors, the design, the smell or lots of other stuff. But you always have a reaction. This reaction effects how the business attracts workers, how the business succeeds or fails and whether the business functions effectively or not. Integrating good design, which includes sustainable practices does affect the bottom line - and it doesn't cost a fraction of what other things cost.