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Green Interior Design Video

From The Lazy Environmentalist on the Sundance Channel

Josh Dorfman

Josh Dorfman, host of Sundance Channel's new original program THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST and a commentator for BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET on THE GREEN, is an environmental entrepreneur, media personality and author of The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living (April 2007) and the recently published The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget (April 2009). He created THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST as a talk radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio from 2006 to 2008, and is the founder and CEO of Vivavi, a retailer of modern, green furniture and home furnishings, which Inc. Magazine has called one of the top 50 companies driving today's green revolution.

As an advocate for positive environmental change, Josh also serves as spokesperson for Brita's FilterForGood campaign to help reduce bottled water waste and for Green Works, Clorox's line of natural cleaning products. He is a member of the Wolf Trap Foundation's National Advisory Council for the Arts and Environment and has served on Newsweek Magazine's Global Environment and Leadership Advisory Committee.

Books for Hotel Designers

Link: Market Out There: The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms.

The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms (The Cool Hunter) by Bill Tikos is available at Amazon for $19.77. To order click here.

Luxury Hotels Top of the World by Misc. - $93.10
100 Tips for Hoteliers: What Every Successful Hotel Professional Needs to Know and Do by Peter Venison - $15.25

Design Hotels Yearbook 2008 by Kimberly Bradley, Rachel B. Doyle, Geoffrey Garrison, and Design Hotels - $44.17

Hotel Design, Planning, and Development, New Edition by Walter A. Rutes, Richard H. Penner, and Lawrence Adams - $63.00

Ultimate Hotel Design by Aurora Cuito - $26.37

Hip Hotels Atlas by Herbert Ypma - $22.17

Luxury Hotels Europe by Misc. - $37,77

Hotel: An American History by Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz - $18.15

Hotel Management and Operations by Denney G. Rutherford and Michael J. O'Fallon - $69.13

The Hotel Book: Great Escapes North America by Diasann McLane, Angelika Taschen, and Don Freeman - $29.19

Hotel Design by Questex Media Group - Magazine Subscription - 8 issues / 12 months - $34.00

Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Law (Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law) by Karen Morris, Norman Cournoyer, and Anthony Marshall - $132.93

Herman Miller's Aeron Chair Earns MBDC Environmental Certification

Mairi Beautyman at Interior Design reports that the Aeron chair now has a PVC-free, polyurethane arm pad.

Link: Herman Miller's Aeron Chair Earns Environmental Certification - 2/17/2009 - Interior Design.

A Herman Miller classic has another green certification under its belt. McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) has awarded the Aeron chair Cradle to Cradle Silver Certification for its sustainable design. The environmental certification ensures the furniture manufacturer is dedicated to material chemistry and safety, product disassembly and recyclability of materials, and maximizing use of materials with recycled content during production.

To meet the criteria, Herman Miller closely examined each material used in the chair, which already boasts Greenguard certification and incorporates several green design features: It's 94 percent recyclable, comprised of up to 64-percent recycled materials, and assembled with 100 percent renewable energy. More than 60 percent recycled content is used in the seat frame and the back is recycled two-liter plastic bottles.

By 2010, Herman Miller plans to achieve 50 percent of sales from products that meet the environmental criteria laid out in the DfE protocol. In 2020, the company is committed to raise that to 100 percent of product sales.

TNP/SLI Green Building Fund for Environmentally Responsible Buildings

Zibb.com describes a capital fund focused on properties that can be retrofitted, repositioned or redeveloped. Excerpts below.

New Capital Fund for Environmentally Responsible Buildings - Zibb.com.

TNP/SLI Green Building Fund announced today the acquisition of a 45 percent interest in an 11-story office building and adjacent four-story parking structure in the heart of downtown Las Vegas. Focused on achieving a Silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED(R) (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System(TM), it will become only the second LEED certified building in downtown Las Vegas further contributing to the area's revitalization.

Located at 302 E. Carson, the building consists of ground floor retail and office space totaling approximately 160,200 square feet and is currently 39 percent occupied. Major tenants include Fitzgerald's Hotel & Casino, the Office of the Chapter 13 Standing Bankruptcy Trustee, ViaWest and Mzima. Via West and Mzima, both national data centers, are currently negotiating expansions at the building due to the high capacity "OC 192" data infrastructure and redundant fiber optic cabling serving 302 E. Carson, which position the property as a prime strategic location for data based businesses.

The fund's partners identified the vintage 1965 building as an attractive investment due to its substantial potential for increased occupancy, operating efficiencies, superior location and appreciation in value in the best performing submarket in Las Vegas. These factors and the property's extensive fiber optic data infrastructure are expected to significantly increase tenant occupancy and drive rental rates.

The $100 million fund, a partnership between Los Angeles, Calif.-based Shangri-La Industries and Irvine, Calif.-based Thompson National Properties, focuses on assets that can be retrofitted, repositioned or redeveloped for greater energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

"We have been buying and selling real estate in Las Vegas for a decade and the Carson property represents a great opportunity to set a new standard for property redevelopment in converting a 1960's vintage, functionally obsolete, energy-wasting building, with a great floor plate and superior location, into a state of the art LEED rated facility," said Anthony W. "Tony" Thompson, Chairman and CEO of Thompson National Properties.

Plans for the renovation illustrate that any building can be retrofitted to be both economically and environmentally sound.

Sustainability Gaining Among Large Design Firms

Interior Design finds that the top 100 Giants are making sustainability an important component in their projects.

Link: Giants: Green - 6/1/2008 - Interior Design.

The design community is on an eco-minded roll, as evidenced by the 2008 top 100 Interior Design Giants. Half the firms on the list have 10 or more LEED-accredited professionals on staff. As for last year's projects, a handful of which are shown here, 77 Giants specified green products—most often, that product was carpet. How's that for low impact?

• 70% of the Top 100 Giants include sustainable design in their mission statement
• In total, the 2008 top 100 Giants specified more than $5 billion worth of green products last year
• 40 of these Giants specified at least $5 million worth of green products
• 35% of all interior products specified in 2007 by the top 100 giants were green
• On average, the top 100 giants have 13 LEED-accredited professionals on staff
• Close to 33% of all projects the top 100 giants work on followed LEED guidelines
• 30 of these giants say at least 40% of their projects last year followed LEED guidelines
• 77% of the top 100 giants report that they, not the client, usually take the initial step in making a project sustainable

Green Furniture & Furnishings

BuildingGreen.com has a list of Green Furniture & Furnishings products

Link: BuildingGreen.com - Green Product Category: Furniture & Furnishings

Bedroom Furnishings (4 products)
FSC-Certified Wood Furniture (13 products)
Furniture (1 product)
Institutional Furniture (1 product)
Natural Fiber Fabrics (3 Articles, 9 products)
Office Furniture (9 Articles, 11 products)
Portable Partitions, Screens, and Panels (6 products)
Reclaimed-Wood Furniture (1 Article, 15 products)
Recycled-Content Furniture (6 products)
Residential Cabinetry (2 Articles, 11 products)
Seating (3 Articles, 6 products)
Signage (2 Articles, 13 products)
Specialty Cabinetry (4 Articles, 8 products)
Storage Shelving (1 product)
Synthetic Fiber Fabrics (4 Articles, 8 products)
Systems Furniture (6 products)
Tackboards (2 products)
Toilet Accessories (4 Articles, 11 products)
Toilet Compartments (4 products)
Tub and Shower Doors (1 product)
Window Shades (2 Articles, 14 products)

Green Interior Finish & Trim Products

BuildingGreen.com had this list of Green Interior Finish & Trim Products

Link: BuildingGreen.com - Green Product Category: Interior Finish & Trim

Acoustical Ceilings (7 Articles, 7 products)
Acoustical Wall Finishes (1 product)
Agfiber Millwork (1 product)
Ceramic Tile (3 products)
Certified-Wood Stairs and Railings (2 products)
Concrete Pigments (2 Articles, 3 products)
Cork Wall Covering (1 Article, 2 products)
Countertops (3 Articles, 18 products)
Fiberboard and Particleboard Panels (22 Articles, 20 products)
Fiberboard Millwork (1 Article, 2 products)
Fiberboard Trim (1 product)
FSC-Certified Millwork (7 Articles, 12 products)
FSC-Certified Wood Paneling (9 Articles, 14 products)
Gypsum Board (14 Articles, 8 products)
Gypsum Board Accessories (2 Articles, 7 products)
Gypsum Board Taping and Finishing (1 Article, 1 product)
Ornamental Simulated Woodwork (1 product)
Plaster Forms (1 product)
Plastic Handrails (1 product)
Plastic Paneling (1 Article, 11 products)
Prefinished Paneling (33 Articles, 18 products)
Reclaimed-Wood Millwork (1 Article, 35 products)
Reclaimed-Wood Paneling (2 Articles, 29 products)
Reclaimed-Wood Stairs and Railings (16 products)
Recycled-Glass Tile (6 products)
Residential Cabinetry (2 Articles, 11 products)
Speciality Ceilings (1 Article, 3 products)
Specialty Cabinetry (4 Articles, 8 products)
Terrazzo (1 Article, 4 products)
Textile Wall Coverings (1 Article, 7 products)
Wall and Corner Guards (1 Article, 1 product)
Wall Covering (7 Articles, 13 products)
Wall Covering Adhesives (1 product)
Wood Mantels (10 products)
Wood Veneer (4 Articles, 10 products)
Wood-Alternative Trim (1 product)
Wood-Veneer Paneling (5 Articles, 4 products)

Hotel Renovation Video

YouTube - Hotel Renovation.

54,000 pictures were used to create this time lapse video of a Guest Room renovation at a hotel in New York. From www.UnitedConstructionGroup.com.

LEEDing Edge Residential High-Rise Unveiled in New York

Mairi Beautyman at Interior Design magazine describes Visionaire, a tower that includes solar panels, wind power, and an innovative water treatment system.

Link: "America's Greenest" Residential High-Rise Unveiled in New York - 12/17/2008 - Interior Design

Photo courtesy of Stedila Design

New York's skyline was recently graced by a new green residential tower, billed as "America’s Greenest High-Rise Condominium."

Expected to land LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the 35-story Visionaire is designed by architect Rafael Pelli of Pelli Clark Pelli Architects and developed by the Albanese Organization, in partnership with Starwood Capital. Interiors of the 251 studio-to-three bedroom residences are designed by interior designer Tim Button of Stedila Design. Visionaire is located in Battery Park City.

Pelli's design focuses on green innovation. The tower will feature solar panels, wind power, a high-efficiency air filtration system, and programmable thermostats and kitchen exhaust systems. Combined, the green features are expected to slash energy consumption by 35 percent, compared to similar code-compliant buildings. A savvy water treatment system will recycle water throughout the building, using it for an HVAC system cooling tower, and rainwater will be collected to irrigate two rooftop gardens.

Green Buildings – Costs vs. Benefits

Penny Bonda at Interior Design summarizes a study of green buildings.

Link: The Costs and Paybacks of Green Buildings - Design Green - Blog on Interior Design.

Researchers released an impressive amount of information at Greenbuild last week including a study with the kind of news we all want to hear – the cost premium for green buildings is considerably less than most people think AND the benefits accrue in numerous and sometimes surprising ways.

The international study, Greening Buildings and Communities: Costs and Benefits, is based on extensive analysis of 150 green buildings and provides the most detailed findings to date on the costs and financial benefits of building green. Among the study’s key findings:  
 
- Green buildings cost roughly 2 percent more to build than conventional non-green buildings, and provide a wide range of financial, health, and social benefits. 
 
- Green buildings reduce energy use by an average of 33 percent, resulting in significant cost savings.
 
- Green buildings create roughly $1 per square foot of value in increased employment by shifting spending from fossil fuel-based energy to more labor intensive domestic jobs in energy efficiency, renewable construction, and new green industries.  

The list of conclusions includes some that are unexpected – delightfully so. Annual gas savings in walkable communities can be as much as $1,000 per household. Annual health savings (from increased physical activity) can be more than $200 per household. CO2 emissions can be reduced by 10-25 perecnt.

These findings refute the public’s perception that green buildings cost more than conventionally designed buildings. It’s also good news in these tough economic times. “The deep downturn in real estate has not reduced the rapid growth in demand for and construction of green buildings,” said Greg Kats, the study’s lead author. “This suggests a flight to quality as buyers express a market preference for buildings that are more energy efficient, more comfortable and healthier.”