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A spate of smart products is making sustainable design easier than ever.
By Paul Makovsky
February 2002
One distinction between a good green building and a great one lies in
the details: assiduously substituting sustainable products (like those
shown here) for conventional ones. And fortunately there's a growing
selection of environmentally attractive products available, from greater
varieties of rapidly renewable standards such as cork and genuine
linoleum (which is made of linseed oil, pigments, pine rosin, and pine
flour) to new ones made from agricultural waste materials like straw.
Every design decision has environmental impact. Reusing items rather
than producing new ones, specifying wood certified by reputable
organizations such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and choosing
equipment that conserves energy or uses renewable energy sources such as
fuel cells and photovoltaic systems all help. But green products can be
used in dumb ways; smart use also limits the impact of the building
process itself on a site and considers the design's long-term
environmental effects in a global context. In the end, truly sustainable
design requires that companies consider the life cycle--from raw
materials to disposal--of their products and that consumers use those
products intelligently.
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