October 2011
Sustainable is beautiful
www.buildgreen.ae
CONSTRUCTION
Studies have shown that inspirational, sustainable spaces not only have a positive psychological effect, lowering absenteeism and raising productivity in offices, they even lower energy costs. BGreen explores the companies you need to know to create the spaces that will leave you, and all who visit, invigorated and renewed!
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Ana Elisa Seixas, LEED AP, director of marketing Middle East, Africa & India and sustainability ambassador for InterfaceFLOR BGreen: List some of the benefits of sustainable interior design? Ana: Most people think about sustainable design mainly from an architectural perspective, but there is a lot you can do from an interior design perspective to create a sustainable space. There is also the idea that to become sustainable one has to put in a lot of effort or spend more money. But there are a lot of little things one can do. For instance, by using the InterfaceFLOR i2 range of carpet tiles, which was inspired by biomimicry, one can decrease the waste in installation by 4-5%, which means a lot less material sent to landfill. If we actually compare roll carpet with i2 carpet tiles the comparison is even bigger - from 12-15% of waste down to 1% waste. On another hand, you can also choose to install the carpet tiles with Tactiles and abolish glue and all its VOCs and inconvenients from the construction
site. Tactiles is a revolutionary adhesive system that doesn’t “glue down” the carpet to the floor, which means you will be able to re-use the carpet tiles in case you move location - therefore increasing the product’s life cycle. Tactiles has 90% lower environmental impact than traditional glue. But sustainable design is not only about recycled content or waste. It is also important to create a space that promotes occupants’ wellbeing and productivity and carpet tiles definitely plays a role. For instance, using InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles will contribute towards sound absorption and better acoustics, and the availability of different designs (more than one million colours, texture and pattern combinations to choose from) allows designers to experiment with the flooring and create different spaces within the same design promoting creativity and productivity. BGreen: Must sustainable interior design be implemented at the early stages of a project or can it also be applied later on? Ana: It is definitely important to have sustainable interior design implemented
at the early stages of a project. But there are always elements that can be incorporated at a later stage. Choosing the right type of lighting, furniture and obviously flooring are normally decided at a later stage and are elements that can definitely contribute toward the sustainable design effort: high recycled content, recyclability, Co2 emissions offset, etc. Ideally, you should be able to get EPD’s from the manufacturers/ suppliers and be able to choose the most sustainable product. BGreen: How important has sustainable interior design become in the region? How prevalent is it? Is it a growing trend? Ana: There is clearly a big push towards sustainable interior design in the region. We are working on more and more LEED projects - we carpeted 60,000 metres for KAUST University in Saudi Arabia (1st LEED in KSA) and have installed more than 10,000 sqm at Masdar. We can see a lot of designers pushing for more sustainable design and looking for the right products that can help them.