The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in October 2018 that was written by 91 authors, and 40 review editors. It featured 133 contributing authors, with 6,000 scientific references. It was subject to over 42,000 expert and government reviews prior to publication. There are a few things we know for certain from the report that has been reviewed by over 42,000 experts: Climate change is man-made and post-industrial revolution issue, and we have now roughly 12 years to prevent the temperature increase of 1.5° C (McGrath, 2018), after that, we will eventually reach a tipping point where we will unable to backtrack from the Anthropocene epoch, which could lead to a 6thmass extinction. (BBC, 2015) This is an issue we can no longer ignore. As my green design idol, Eric Corey Freed of OrganicARCHITECT, once said, “the good news is that it is statistically possible to prevent the temperature rise.” (Freed, 2017)
The rapid changes we need in our society are in energy generation, land use, cities, and industry. (McGrath, 2018) Buildings and building construction account for nearly 40% of the planet’s energy usage, (UN, 2017) (Petkar, 2014) and the building construction sector contributes to 38% of the greenhouse gas emissions. (Ritchie & Roser, 2018)
The primary responsibilities of an interior designer are to promote health, safety, welfare, and to enhance the human experience. As an interior designer, the decisions made are impactful on the environment, dictating the electrical load and how much water a building will consume in the appliances and fixtures specified. If we are working on a project in a community that relies on non-renewable resources for energy, then our decisions matter even more. We can either select materials with a high embodied footprint or a low one.
We have a clear role to follow ethical practices and being stewards of the environment and the planet's finite resources. Being part of the solution looks beyond energy consumption. Not only will it be good for the environment, but it will make us healthier, we will have happier communities and despite misleading information circulation, our economy will continue to thrive.
This manifesto is my declaration of my commitment to the sustainable design principles listed in The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, by Jason McLennan. There principles I will explore are:
Qorner by Safdie Architects (Inhabitat, 2018)