REGREEN: Remodeling Guidelines to Re-Green Your Interior Design
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03.20.08
Last week, at its annual conference in New Orleans, the American Society of Interior Designers released REGREEN, its set of guidelines for home remodeling with a shade of green.
In contrast with LEED, which scores and certifies green buildings, REGREEN is a set of guidelines, designed to give homeowners and interior design and buildings professionals the background and resources to evaluate green products and energy systems in the systems-based context of how an entire home operates.
As part of the online document [pdf] (hooray for tree-free), the guidelines are accompanied by 10 case studies covering different project types -- kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, finished basement remodel, gut rehab, etc. -- and is chock-full of home remodeling and interior design ideas, all with a green point of view.
The guidelines are just that -- guidelines -- rather than a script to be followed, which is closer to LEED's approach, and that has both drawbacks and benefits. Doing it right will require getting everybody -- including interior designers, contractors, sub-contractors and homeowners -- all on the same page, and the systems-based approach will require that everything work well together; executing a green home remodel won't be as easy as slapping in some bamboo cabinets and plugging in an Energy Star fridge. But if you're going to do it, you might as well do it well, right?
There's lots of other worthwhile resources in connection with the guidelines, including a green products checklist [pdf]; to learn more, click on over to the REGREEN site to check out the public comment results [pdf] or FAQs [pdf]. ::REGREEN Program via ::Dwell Daily
Here is a green remodeling tip...don't remodel.
Hey anonymous - remodeling is often a greener option than moving. Changing your home to continue to meet your needs prevents not only the environmental costs of moving, but also the environmental costs of all the purchases required to make your new space meet your needs, as well as the purchases required for the new resident in your home to change it to meet their needs.
You also have the social cost of having to adjust to a new neighborhood, and the environmental cost of having to drive to find everything where you move to. The friends you leave behind are also affected, and may have to go farther for their community and social needs.
Remodeling can be *much* more environmentally friendly than leaving your current space. I direct you to Christopher Alexander for more.
Ben:
I think you're missing his point. Instead of remodeling the building, I'd guess s/he means a remodeling of needs.
That's the fundamental issue some have with Treehugger...that we can consume our way to sustainability instead of adopting the virtues of propriety, modesty of the material, and adjusting to fit our spaces, rather than remaking the world based on some social idea of "need".
I'd guess that most "needs" that we perceive today, are actually just desires and wholly voluntary and discretionary expenditures.
JS
I guess it depends on who is doing the remodeling and why. I have a friend who works as an architect and in the past has designed kitchens for incredibly wealthy people with very specific taste. If many of them were to decided to "regreen" instead of their usual chocies it would probably reduce environmental impact, but would play into your arguement of modesty of materials, and how people think they can buy their way into green.
However, other may be remodeling an older house with lead paint, or with cabinets with holes in them that are non-functional, or water damaged homes where pipes burst in the kitchen.
While buying your way to green doesn't work, having the green option and making people aware of it does, especially for those who are doing it for the right reasons.
One of the best ways to remodel the "green" way is to reuse and re-purpose existing items. Restore an old home using salvage. The ultimate in recycling is using antiques and vintage furniture and accessories. Shop places like Goodwill and get creative. Find new ways to use things you already have or that someone else has discarded. Not only do you help the environment, but you save money as well!
Merri Cvetan
MEC Design Studio
www.mecdesignstudio.com
Is anyone else having trouble opening the Regreen PDFs? They keep crashing my browser, and I've tried both Firefox and IE. Thanks!
I think another problem I have with typically American perspectives on green remodeling is that we want objects to be green now and don't take into account how something can be green simply due to a longlasting life span. For example, replacing your lamp with something that has high-recycled content 5 times in your lifetime instead of getting one lamp that lasts a lifetime. In reference to JC's comment this might mean sacrificing a new, but "green," lamp that would go perfectly with the style of your living room. We can't just consume our way into sustainability. Modesty in our consumption and higher standards in our products is in itself a greener method of remodeling.