Indoor enviornments- sustainable furniture, paints/finishes, indoor plants, and efficient lighting

FURNITURE

What makes furniture environmentally responsible?
• single material
• abundant materials
• recyclable
• renewable materials
• native materials
• design for easy maintenance
• low-engergy production
• avoidance of toxic substances
• reduced engergy during transport
• designed for disassembly
• multifunctional
• universal design

Here are some examples of works done today:


Garden bench by Jurgen Bay for Droog, Netherlands. Taking waste from the garden indoors to create furniture. This is more of a conceptual piece, one offs are made.
Designed by architect Shirgeru Ban, Japan. All his structures are made of cardboard, simple, recyclable and beautiful.
Stokke Tripp Trapp by Peter Opsvik, Norway. Adjustable to suit baby to youth.


PAINTS AND FINISHES

What makes paints/ finishes eco friendly?
• non toxic ingredients (solvents, VOCs, biocides, preservatives)
• clean production
• use of natural materials (such as beeswax, orange peel, pine tree resin, seed oil, earth pigments)
• renewable materials
• reduce pollution manufacturing
• recyclable packaging
• reduction in embodied energy
• recycled paint



INDOOR PLANTS

What are the benefits of indoor plants?
• reduce indoor air pollution
• natural air purfier
• absorbs carbon dioxide, releases oxygen
• creates a relaxing indoor space

Here are two examples of indoor green space in Toronto

Bio-wall, Robertson Building- 215 Spadina Avenue. Installed 250 square foot bio wall in March 2004


Cellular and Biomolecular building at , University of Toronto



LIGHTING

What defines energy efficient lighting?
• reduce wattage
• proper disposal available to consumer
• ease of recycling materials
• longer lasting bulbs
• suitable luminance for type of activity

2 Most popular and up coming choices of today are :
CFL-operate on 9 to 25 watts of energy while emitting the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb . Its life span is more than 10 times longer that the traditional bulb. CFLs produce ultraviolet light, made visible through phosphor coating on the glass.
LEDs- convert electric energy directly into light of a single color. Because they employ “cold” light generation technology, in which most of the energy is delivered in the visible spectrum, LEDs don't waste energy in the form of non-light producing heat.