Earlier this week I flew down to LA to speak on a panel at Westweek Design Forum at the Pacific Design Center. The panel was organized by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) as an opportunity to discuss green advancements in the industry. Lori Dennis, an interior designer, LEED AP, and the panel moderator, opened with a review of some projects and products around LA that incorporate recycled and renewable materials.

The use of sustainable elements in home interiors is obviously a fairly common goal right now, if not a common practice, largely motivated by the desire to save money, energy, or both. But we don't hear as much about the motivational force of environmental sensitivity, allergies and illness to turn people towards greener options.

The first panelist, Mary Cordaro, specializes in this niche. She pointed out that it's the smallest segment of the green consumer market, but argues that it's a critical one, because people have very personal reasons for their choices, and are willing to spend extra money to improve their health. Cordaro's company, H3 Environmental, provides evaluation and consulting on the environmental quality of interior spaces, and offers recommendations for how to achieve clean air inside. She also has a line of products including mattresses and bedding that are free of toxic materials. As she explains on her website:

"Most conventional synthetic mattresses contain Dacron and foam padding, either polyurethane foam, viscose foam or synthetic latex. Synthetics outgas chemicals called VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and SVOCs (semi-volatile organic compounds) from the core materials or outer coverings...Conventional mattresses are further treated with fire retardants such as organophosphate chemicals, including PBDEs, which have been shown in recent studies to have a cumulative effect in humans and wildlife with exposure over time."

Cordaro contends that the measuring stick for a healthy indoor environment should be a developing fetus, which has the highest level of sensitivity and the lowest capacity to avoid contaminants.  One of the other panelists, Kris Kimble, creator of a soon-to-open sustainable design & lifestyle center in Los Angeles called The Green Hive, chimed in with a story that illustrates perfectly our confused attitudes toward indoor air quality. He said he'd been speaking to a Norwegian colleague who pointed out that when Americans find out they are expecting a baby, they coat the walls of the baby's room in fresh paint, lay down new carpet and buy new furniture—almost all of which infuse the room with chemicals that will offgas for months or years to come—and then they close the windows to keep out anything that might blow in with the breeze. Elsewhere, news of a baby would lead expecting parents to strip out anything that might contaminate the air, open all the windows, and put the infant into an old drawer-cum-bassinet.

Babies and kids are an obvious motivator when it comes to cleaning up and dropping some extra cash for the best possible stuff. But even without children in the picture, it makes sense that we should consider what we're breathing when we decide how to decorate and furnish or homes and offices; and that a big part of "sustainable" home decor should be an evaluation of what we *can't* see. To quote Bruce Sterling and the Viridian Principles, "If carbon dioxide were blood-red, the skies would look ominous indeed."

But not to end on too menacing a note, the panel presented a nice array of suggestions and case studies (including a few Off the Grid and Process sections from Dwell) that cohere into a picture of what's possible when you want to create an interior that goes easy on resources, energy consumption and health.