Green Interior DesignWhat is Green Interior Design?
LEED and the U.S. Green Building Council
Since its inception in 1998 the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accreditation program set up by the U.S Green Building Council (USBC) has formulated several key metrics for Green Interior Design. The metrics which have come clearly to the fore are:
- Energy Saving
- Water Efficiency
- C02 Emissions Reduction
- Improved Indoor Environmental Quality
- Stewardship of Resources & Sensitivity to their Impacts
LEED is about finding ways to provide quantifiable standards for these key areas of building design. The underlying belief is that a holistic approach must be adopted which considers the larger picture. This involves assessing how environmentally friendly the whole process of building, furnishing, maintaining and refitting a building is. It is also about weighing the (sometimes conflicting) interests of 'people, the planet and profit' in an on-going approach with goals that can be defined in terms of:
- Providing clean air for people indoors
- Husbanding natural resources such as water
- Reducing C02 emissions to as near to zero as possible
- Making a building with a zero carbon footprint by off-setting and green technologies
- Saving money by using solar power, energy efficient products, sourcing locally and using renewable resources
Green Interior Design is a vital part of these goals. It is estimated that the average American spends 80% of their life indoors and that buildings account for 30% of the total annual energy consummed in the United States. The more that can be done to make homes and offices better and cleaner environments for people and more energy efficient the better it will be for us, the environment and the economy.
Green Interior Design.info is a website designed to showcase products and ideas that help a building to meet the criteria set out by the LEED program.