And now for something completely different” In the past month, Penny Bonda, FASID, NCIDQ, LEED AP, has fielded two very helpful student-related sustainable design questions in The Green Zone, Interior Design magazine”s eco-focused section of its weekly online newsletter, Livewire. We felt that they were too important not to point out to our readership, so we”re providing the links here.

May 15, 2006

I”m looking for an interior design program with an emphasis on sustainability. Do you know of any”

This is one of the questions I hear most frequently and is fairly easy for me to answer though possibly not as definitively as many would like. For a good green design education, begin your search for schools with Council for Interior Design Accreditation (formerly FIDER) programs. Beginning this year, accredited programs must incorporate sustainability into their curriculum in order to comply with the Council”s standards”

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Penny Bonda”s advice on this topic.

May 22, 2006

I’m an interior design student working on a project that is to incorporate green contemporary products, and find it difficult to locate contemporary green furniture. Why is this and what are the attributes of green furniture”

To properly answer that question, I need to understand whether your project is residential or commercial. The green product offerings on the commercial side have been easier to find since the introduction of USGBC“s LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) rating system. Manufacturers in the contract market have been diligently improving their products or introducing new ones that will potentially contribute to LEED point totals. For example, low emitting products with renewable or recycled content are becoming more readily available”

GO HERE to read the rest of Penny Bonda”s advice on this topic.

Interested in Penny”s eco-insight” Then access her past articles by going here.