ICON - The magazine of the American Society of Interior Designers - (Page 52)

thinking green Women in Green Generations of designers are paving the path of sustainability By Pam Janis Do you have a sustainable project you’d like to share with ASID members? To be considered for a case study in “Thinking Green,” please send a short description of the project to tbanks@ asid.org. Be sure to take a look at the brand new ASID brochure,“101 Ways to Go Green,” included with this issue of ASID ICON. It is also available to download at www.asid.org/green. The theories abound: women are more likely to go green than men because they’re nurturers; because they’re more environmentally aware; because they’re more likely than men to think it matters. (In fact, polls do show that women are about 15 percent more likely than men to rate the environment a high priority, according to the landmark book Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design, by Kira Gould and Lance Hosey.) Here’s the truth, from the perspective of three generations of “green” designing women: It is a requirement for design today. “It’s about being a professional,” says Victoria Schomer, ASID, LEED AP, whose company, Green Built Environments, has designed residences in Asheville, N.C., for 20 years. “It’s not a trend. It’s the way the profession has changed.” Veterans and newcomers alike agree. “We have got to get all design up to speed,” says Kirsten Childs, ASID, LEED AP, of New York’s Croxton Collaborative Architects, who is widely considered a pathﬁnder in the ﬁeld. “Some designers still see it as an enormous learning curve and think, why should they bother? The answer to that is, you’re going to get left behind if you don’t. It’s another layer of care.” Childs is a past member of the ASID Sustainable Design Council, which educates and promotes design awareness of sustainability, including living in harmony with the natural environment, integrated building design, and indoor spaces that support the well-being and productivity of its users, and resource and energy efﬁciency. When she began practicing sustainable design years ago, Childs says, the hardest thing about it was that, “We had to do so much research in the beginning because no one else was doing it. There was no such term as ‘sustainable design.’” Even now, though science provides quantiﬁed research in areas such as energy efﬁciency, correlations of “healthy” (and unhealthy) buildings to worker productivity and quality of life, and chem- 52 ASID ICON | THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERIOR DESIGNERS COURTESY CREDIT TK http://www.asid.org/green

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ICON - The magazine of the American Society of Interior Designers

ICON - The magazine of the American Society of Interior Designers Contents President’s Message Good to Know Innovations Breathing Life into a Building Designs for Senior Living On the Move Thinking Green Aging in Style Industry Inside ASID Grassroots ASID National Industry Partner Focus Showroom Advertisers Resource Guide Annual Articles Index

ICON - The magazine of the American Society of Interior Designers

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