“Green” is always a catchy word as of late, designers and clients alike fling it around like it’s no big deal. The truth is, it is a big deal. “Green” or environmentally friendly products are more expensive to make generally. Take our local Whole Foods store up the road on Rand. They are building a new store a little further down on Rand and it has been in the works for years – why? Because it is more expensive and more time consuming to build if you want to be nice to your environment in the process. (Might I add, I CANNOT WAIT until it opens! I love Whole Foods!) There are so many factors that go into being “green” – energy efficiency, chemical waste during production, how much pollution is made by the truck that gets it here, etc. To me, energy efficiency is a BIG one – if I spend a little bit extra upfront but it saves me for months to come, I’m in! I personally have Hunter Douglas’s Duette Architella shades in my master bedroom and the babies’ bedroom and love them. They definitely help helping the cold/hot out and because I have the room darkening, our bedrooms look like midnight for my afternoon naps on the weekends. At CDT, we have quite a few products that can help with your client’s that desire “green” – read on to hear what Emily has to say (an intern currently in our memo room), come in the showroom and we will be happy to show you some more!
By: Emily Boudreau
Now that spring is finally here, we may look out our windows and notice beauty around us. Trees now have some buds, we can hear birds chirping out our windows in the morning, and some days, we can even leave our coats at home. These small changes can help to open our eyes and hopefully inspire us to embrace and care for our environment. Luckily, many products have been created to help us do this, and in the following paragraphs we will take a look at what we have to offer here at Chicago Design Team to help us create a better planet.
As many of you already know, we carry many different beautiful fabrics here. Fabrics are a big part of our lives and now we can feel good about the fact that S. Harris manufactures a line of fabric called Fusion Recycled. Click here to see the line for yourself. The fabric is made up of recycled plastic bottles, interestingly enough, each yard of fabric recycles 17... 17 (!) plastic bottles from landfills! The plastic is cut into flakes and then melted and pushed through a showerhead-like device which extrudes a strand of polyester yarn. Once the strands are created, the yarn becomes woven into 100 % post consumer polyester fabrics. And the really cool part is that when the consumer is done using the fabric, they can be re - recycled and used again. Because of the products ability to be reused, it is considered cradle to cradle, which means that it meets a strict set of requirements and can be re-used in the future. If you would like to know more about cradle to cradle, please check out MBDC’s website (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry).
It is important to know the basics of what makes a product “Green” or sustainable. The following definitions are from Metropolis Magazine.
First, a term we hear about a lot and some of us may wonder what exactly it means is LEED. LEED, which was developed by the United States Green Building Council, is a publicly reviewed set of standards that measures sustainable construction and ranks green buildings and interiors on a five-tier scale. Basically, I like to think of it as a rating like ‘miles per gallon’ for a car, except we are talking about other products. Next, there is Green Seal which is an independent, non profit organization that sets environmental standards for a wide variety of consumer products and sales. We often hear the term low or no “VOC”… This means that the product has no or low amounts of Volatile Organic Compounds which are Chemical compounds that have high enough vapors pressures under normal conditions to vaporize and enter the atmosphere - a process called “off gassing.” Common VOCs can be found in paint, paint thinners, carpeting, furniture and household cleaning products.
While these terms are great to know about, I feel it is more interesting to get back to the cool products that meet some of these standards. Robert Allen has multiple lines of fabric which can be found at CDT which include Eco Poly, Pure Style and Sensuede I & II. Sensuede II is a eco friendly book that contains 130 colors of high performance synthetic suede that is great for both commercial and residential. These fabrics meet product safety standards under the Oeko - Tex Standard 100. For more information on Oeko - Tex standards, which basically are a set of testing and safety standards for textiles, please check out this website. When trying to be stewards for the environment, we can feel we have done our jobs and have piece of mind knowing that these fabrics are free of carcinogenic and allergy inducing dyestuffs, formaldehyde, pesticides, and emission of volatile compounds to name a few. Check out Robert Allen’s line called Sensuede II here, or to see the product in person, come into CDT, we would love to see you.
-Insulation: Our window fashions reduce heat flow (both heat loss and heat gain) through the windows.
-Solar Heat Control: Our window fashions help to control solar heat (heat generated from the sun) by allowing it into your home in the winter and minimizing the amount that comes in during the summer.
-Daylighting: Our window fashions enhance daylighting (the use of natural light) by diffusing and dispersing sunlight deep into a room, reducing your need for electrical lighting.
If you are interested in what we have to offer as far as green products, there are plenty of more options which can be viewed in person in our showroom. Please stop in we would love to see you! Have a great day and remember to “Be the Change You Want To See in the World“- Gandhi.
No comments:
Post a Comment