Love the planet too

Designing a place where you and other space users will feel comfortable and accomplish whatever you’re motivated to get done has more than the obvious positive implications.

If a place works for you and the others who’ll use it, that means that you won’t feel a need to change it much.  Sure, over time you’ll definitely make some minor, resource-wise, modifications, maybe paint a wall here, change out window treatments there, but if a place is designed using the science principles we lay out here LINK and here LINK, you won’t be knocking down walls and doing other sorts of things that eat up resources and produce all sorts of very undesirable sorts of, well, trash.

Designing right isn’t what everyone thinks of when they’re thinking of designing green, but it is and deserves Earth-points.

If you’ve created a place that’s green, however you’ve done so, it’s useful to remind yourself and others what you’ve done so because being and particularly working in Earth-friendly places has all sorts of positive ramifications.  Reminders might be plaques in more public spaces, but more subtle in private homes.

Green construction sends a powerful nonverbal message about concern for the future and users’ lives in it.  That not only boosts user mood and performance but also their tolerance for conditions that may not be as perfect as perfect can be.  An area that’s a little hotter than ideal, or where ventilation with outside air can send a lone piece of paper into its own free form flight path still seems like a good place to be if it’s green; if it’s not green, complaints to the maintenance crew would flow in the same conditions.  People are more tolerant of conditions in green buildings than elsewhere.

If you create a green space that’s known to be green, it’s entirely possible that people will be more satisfied with it, and feel better being in it, than by rights they should.  People are fascinating beasts and when they feel that an investment has been made in their future, even if they are responsible for that investment, outcomes are rose-y.