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Understanding the Need for Sustainable Design

On my first Boy Scout trip, in the mid-1950s, I learned the basic environmental principle that we should leave the campsite as we found it. We were told that the next group of hikers deserved no less and that in fact we should clean the site up if those before us had been careless. I did not as a child understand that the campsite would be global or that the next hikers would include unborn generations.

-John Sitter

• Learning Objective 1: Discuss the concept of designing for benefit rather than austerity.
• Learning Objective 2: Apply sustainable design concepts to kitchen and bath projects.
• Learning Objective 3: Identify the basic needs for applying sustainable practices.

Our world is in dire straits; human impact on the earth is affecting the future of the planet (see Figure 1.1). Consider these facts:

1. The average temperature of the earth has risen by more than 1.4° F over the last century.1
2. Oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, ice caps are melting, and sea levels are rising.2 From 1880 to 2011, the average sea level rise was 0.07 inches per year, but from 1993 to 2011, the sea level rise was between 0.11 and 0.13 inches per year.3
3. Emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide [CO2], methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases) have increased due to human activities such as:
   • The burning of fossil fuels.
   • Anaerobic decay of organic waste in landfills due to industry processes and commercial and household chemicals (see Figure 1.2)

Figure 1.1 World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report © 2014

World Wildlife Fund, www.panda.org

Figure 1.2 Total US Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Economic Sector in 2011

www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/usinventoryreport.html

Global warming or climate change occurs when the greenhouse gases redirect too much radiation toward the earth. Radiant energy, in the form of heat, comes from the sun. In a most amazing natural cycle, unnecessary (and potentially harmful) radiant energy is sent out of the earth's atmosphere into space. With the exponential increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere over the last 150 years, this process is being interrupted. The gases are trapping the energy as heat (see Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 The Greenhouse Effect

www.epa.gov/climatestudents/basics/today/greenhouse-effect.html

The term "greenhouse gas" is a blanket term for compounds that exacerbate this situation. These gases are by-products of industry. Waste emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are the leading source of these gases, but they are not completely responsible. Other sources of greenhouse gas include the manufacture of hydrofluorocarbons (refrigerants), emissions from landfills, emissions from livestock, and off-gassing of chemicals.

The construction industry has only added to our current problem. Research shows that the construction industry impacts our global problem with residential buildings accounting for:

• 38.9 percent of total US energy consumption
• 38.9 percent of total US CO2 emissions
• 13 percent of total US water consumption4

TRIPLE-BOTTOM-LINE APPROACH

We can answer the question "Why sustainable design?" with inspiration from the triple-bottom-line (TBL) concept (see Figure 1.4). This book is written in what appears to be the end stages of the worst economic crisis (recession) since the twentieth century's Great Depression. It is an exciting time. With the kitchen and bath remodeling sector experiencing a return to business growth, there is an opportunity to make this return to prosperity a green one. How do things look different now from four years ago? How will they look four years from today? The conversation about sustainable building, design, and remodeling practices is an evolving one.

Figure 1.4 The main parts of the triple bottom line are people, planet, and profit, but as this figure shows, there are subsets that further define the TBL.

NKBA

At the end of the twentieth century, many companies were profiting at the expense of many workers and the natural environment. People, planet, profit is a business concept also known as the triple bottom line (TBL).

The term "TBL" first was used in 1994 by economist John Elkington. At the time, it was a revolutionary approach to business as usual. The TBL asks that businesses create three sectors with measureable outcomes to determine the success of the company. It states that it is not enough simply to look at the final success (profit) of the company as the one bottom line; one must also look at how the business affects the environment (planet) and how the business supports its community (people).

In this book, we examine ways to create sustainable kitchens and baths by understanding the need to become a steward of the environment. Creating a sustainable design practice means planning for benefit: saving your client money, paying homage to the environment, and designing healthy interiors that will enhance your clients' lives.

Event-Oriented Thinking, Systems Thinking, and the Butterfly Effect

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The environment is a big issue-one country, one government, one community, one business, or one person cannot resolve all the issues, but if each one of us does our part, then change will occur. It will take a new way of thinking-a paradigm shift.

To make a paradigm shift, we must look at our attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs. This is not a linear process; it is a loop. Let's look at this in a different way:

Midterms are fast approaching, and you are getting a cold. Your homework is piling up, but there is a party this weekend, so you take cold medicine and head out. You spend the next three nights pulling all-nighters, take your midterms, and spend the next few days in bed very sick (see Figure 1.5).

Figure 1.5 Event-oriented thinking says that everything can be explained by a chain of events: If A or B happens, then C will most likely occur-cause and effect.

NKBA

This is event-oriented thinking. This process looks at the world in a linear fashion: A happens, then B, then C. Event-oriented thinking assumes that each event has a cause and that changing the cause will correspondingly change the event. The rest of the system that produced the event need not be considered.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

-Albert Einstein

Now let's look at your cold in a new way.

Midterms are fast approaching, and you are getting a cold. After a few days of being miserable, you start thinking, "I seem to get a cold close to midterms often. Why is that?" You are recognizing a pattern. So, what happens at midterms each time? Well, the amount of work is beginning to pile up, but you are still going out with your friends on Friday and Saturday, not eating well, and your exercise regime has gone by the wayside. Now you are seeing what is influencing the pattern. To make a change, you need to make a shift. What can you do to break the pattern? Perhaps you can only go out on Saturday if all your studying is done, plan your meals in advance, get a workout partner, and focus on your health.

You are on your way to break the cycle. This is systems thinking (see Figure 1.6).

Figure 1.6 Systems thinking: To solve a problem, you need to assess what is happening at the base.

NKBA

System thinking is the process of looking at things as interdependent systems where one part influences another. Event-oriented thinking is linear cause and effect, but systems thinking is circular (a causal loop). Systems thinking is not reacting to a problem; rather, it encourages a more holistic approach to solutions.

The metaphor of the butterfly effect illustrates system thinking. A butterfly flaps its wings, and the small current has the ability to effect change as large as the path of a storm. The concept involves considering that small, almost imperceptible events can alter larger ones. It involves understanding that there is an interdependency of all events on the planet and that all circumstances are sensitive to one another. Much like the butterfly effect, systems thinking reasons that small events can be separated by time and distance and still affect one another.

This is the appropriate way to look at sustainability. Just changing your lamps to compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can be part of the solution; but as a designer, you have the opportunity to effect larger change. You can be part of the solution.

That's what this book is about-arming you with the knowledge and tools to effect change.

Imperceptible Change?

In...