Introduction
Designers, specifiers, and textile buyers increasingly make choices that affect both performance and environmental impact. Interior textiles influence the built environment, the natural environment, and the quality of indoor air. Because of that, sustainability has become part of ethical decision making, not just a matter of convenience. This article organize the main ideas behind sustainable interior textiles, green design, renewable resources, LEED, indoor air quality, and longer textile lifespans.
Sustainable Interior Textiles and Green Design
Knowledge of textile manufacture, procurement, and professional practice forms the foundation for ethical decision making. Textile professionals are expected to conduct business honestly and ethically, as professional organizations generally require. In addition, sustainability and green design are areas where individual and firm policies are guided by belief. This issue sits within the larger question of how textile manufacture and use affect the built environment and the natural environment.
For many professionals, a commitment to sustainability now guides the specification and selection of interior textiles. This is especially true where designers understand the benefits of green design and want to shape client attitudes as well as project outcomes. For an increasing number of professionals, green design is not pursued only when convenient; it is part of a clear effort to change attitudes about the damage textile production has done to the earth, the atmosphere, and indoor air quality. Students are also likely aware of the consumption patterns that have driven contemporary economies. Rather than condemning older generations, the more useful task is to learn from cutting-edge professionals who see green design as critical and also educate clients and fellow designers.
Sustainability, or green design, is a multifaceted term that applies to every stage of a fabric’s lifespan, from beginning to end. It means managing waste and avoiding pollution, conserving resources, and using materials and furnishings whose components are renewable. A sustainable environment uses furnishings made from renewable resources, has a long lifespan, and requires minimal upkeep. Green design also means creating healthy, clean environments for users. It also brings reuse and recycling into the picture so that waste and landfill buildup are reduced. In that sense, it circles back to the same goal of avoiding pollution.
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, the built environment is growing globally at a rate three times faster than population growth. Buildings place a heavy demand on finite earth resources, consuming 30 to 40 percent of all energy used and using as much as 30 percent of all raw materials produced annually. These numbers point to a real crisis in depletion. Natural resources are being consumed at a troubling rate, and the energy used in modern manufacturing is a major contributor to that crisis. Public awareness has helped shift the conversation, and sustainability is now more than a buzzword. It has become a guide for procuring materials, manufacturing products, and living in the built environment with conservation of both material and energy in mind. It also means the environment is safe and healthy for occupants, which can improve health and workforce productivity.
The immediate, short-term benefits of sustainability in an office or business include improved employee health and productivity, cost savings, and a better life cycle for furnishings. It helps to think of green design as a circular or closed system, much like the water cycle. What is taken from the earth, whether alive or inert, eventually returns to begin its life cycle again. With that in mind, the real question is whether we are helping this process along or adding to a world that is no longer sustainable, where resources are depleted without being replenished and landfills fill with products that do not disintegrate. Our role in the procurement, use, and discard of textiles has a real and significant impact on the environment. With that realization, the major movement toward green design deserves our full commitment.
Specific ways to make a difference include avoiding pollution and managing waste, using renewable resources, understanding and specifying green materials, paying attention to indoor air quality, selecting long-lived products, extending lifespans, learning how to extend lifespans, and encouraging people to reduce, reuse, recycle, and repair.
Avoiding Pollution and Managing Waste
Compared to many other industries, the textile industry, particularly in the United States and Europe, is succeeding in waste and pollution management. That progress reflects the commitment of fiber producers, yarn spinners, textile mills, and converters or fabric finishers to use less energy and fewer resources during manufacturing and to avoid polluting the ground, streams, or atmosphere. Certain chemicals once used and known to be environmentally or physically harmful have been eliminated by many large manufacturers or removed from the market. Water used in processing and dyeing is being conserved, recycled, and purified, and air pollution constraints are firmly in place. Manufacturers in developed countries are committed to green manufacturing in the production of textile products.
Certifications for Green Manufacturing
Internationally recognized certification programs support and encourage green manufacturing. Two certifications sought by textile industry manufacturers are ISO 14000 and ATMI E3 status. The International Organization for Standardization is a private Swiss organization devoted to promoting standardization and marketing activities among nations to support free trade. With input from industry, research groups, governments, and consumer and international organizations, the ISO 14000 series sets strict criteria industries must meet to manage the impact of their activities on the environment.
The American Textile Manufacturers Institute offers a rating system known as Encouraging Environmental Excellence, or E3, created in 1992 to improve the U.S. textile industry’s environmental record. Its main purpose is to challenge U.S. textile companies to strengthen their commitment to the environment by going beyond simple compliance with existing environmental laws. E3 encourages companies to stay ahead of regulations and set standards for other industries to follow. Once compliance is met for all federal, state, and local laws, companies must set and then exceed their own standards for environmental excellence. To qualify for E3 certification, an ATMI member company must comply with all federal, state, and local environmental laws. It must also adopt a ten-point plan. The guidelines require a corporate environmental policy, annual goals for reducing waste and conserving water and energy, an outreach program for customers and suppliers, employee education and community awareness programs, and audits of its facilities. Once eligible, annual certification is required. The EPA rates ATMI among the most proactive trade associations on pollution prevention, waste reduction, and environmental improvement.
Renewable Resources
Renewable resources are raw or natural resources that are not depleted when used but can be replanted or recreated on a continual basis, for example by harvesting wood pulp from sustainably managed forests for fabric production. A newer sustainable polymer fiber is polylactide, or PLA, now a generic description for synthetic fibers made from annually renewable resources.
PLA was developed by Cargill Dow LLC, an independent company founded in 1997 after fourteen years and a $750 million investment in research and development by its parent companies and funding sources. It is located in Minnetonka, Minnesota. One PLA company name is NatureWorks, and its resulting fiber has the trademark name Ingeo™. It is made from lactic acid, the product of fermented dextrose. While PLA can be made from the sugars of many plants, the selected source was cornstarch, which is made of carbon dioxide and water. The production facility is in Blair, Nebraska.
At full capacity, the total corn needed for PLA will be 0.15 percent, or less than one fifth of 1 percent, of annual U.S. grain production. PLA represents an optimal combination of agricultural processes and biological and chemical technologies, while using up to 50 percent less energy in its manufacturing. PLA fabrics are suited for a wide range of interior textiles and industrial applications at a cost and performance level that competes with petrochemical synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester. This example shows where we may be headed as new fibers continue to develop.
Green Specification and LEED
Green specification is the selection of products made from renewable resources that will not harm the earth’s environment if they are removed. Green products are also manufactured with fewer adverse effects on the environment than comparable traditional products. Green specification also means selecting textiles that can be recycled or reused. The EPA has established a certification system in which manufactured items can be designated as “Environmentally Preferable Products.” These have a reduced effect on human health and the environment compared with other products that serve the same purpose. To earn this certification, the product is evaluated according to product performance, total environmental impact of manufacturing, use of green energy in manufacturing, and safety, health, environment, and end-of-life responsibility.
LEED-CI Contract Interiors
Design professionals who need help with green specification can turn to resources such as LEED-CI, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Contract Interiors section of the LEED Green Building Rating System. The Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, is a voluntary, consensus-based certification system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. It was created to define green building by establishing a common standard of measurement. The USGBC also aims to raise awareness of green building benefits and help transform the building market.
LEED provides a complete framework for assessing building performance and meeting sustainability goals. Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. LEED recognizes achievements and promotes expertise in green building through project certification, professional accreditation, training, and practical resources. In the United States, buildings use one-third of the total energy, two-thirds of the electricity, and one-eighth of the water consumed. Introduced in 1999, the LEED-NC Green Building Rating System for New Construction has helped improve the quality of buildings and their impact on the environment, helping produce a sustainable community. Project teams interested in LEED certification must register online during the early phases of a project to ensure maximum potential for certification success. Credits are assigned in construction and furnishing areas, as well as to remodel and tenant improvements.
LEED-CI Credits for Textiles
The portion of LEED that applies to textiles is found within LEED-CI, or Contract Interiors. This certification applies to tenant improvements in new or existing office space. Those who choose to participate in the LEED rating systems may be recognized for their commitment to environmental issues, receive recognition for their achievements, qualify for funding initiatives, and gain marketing exposure for their project.
These sections include Credit 3.3 Resource Reuse, Credit 4.3 Low-Emitting Materials: Carpet Systems, Credit 4.5 Low-Emitting Materials: Systems Furniture and Seating, and Credit 8.2 to 8.3 Daylight and Views. Although the last section is based on the quantity and placement of windows, window treatments can either enhance daylight and views or detract from natural daylighting.
Resource Reuse, 30 Percent Furniture and Furnishings, requires salvaged, refurbished, or used furniture and furnishings for 30 percent of the total furniture and furnishing budget. Recycled Content, 20 Percent, requires materials, including furniture and furnishings, with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the pre-consumer, or post-industrial, content makes up at least 20 percent of the total value of the materials in the project. Rapidly Renewable Materials requires rapidly renewable construction and Division 12, Furniture and Furnishings, materials and products made from plants that are typically within a ten-year cycle or shorter for 5 percent of the total value of all materials used in the project.
Credit 4.3 Low-Emitting Materials: Carpet Systems requires carpets to meet or exceed the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Green Label, plus testing and product requirements. Credit 4.5 Low-Emitting Materials: Systems Furniture and Seating defines systems furniture as either a panel-based workstation made up of modular interconnecting panels, hang-on components, and drawer-filing components, or a grouping of furniture items and their components designed to work together. Occasional furniture is not included. All systems furniture and seating introduced into the project space that has been manufactured, refurbished, or refinished within one year before occupancy must meet one of two requirements. Option A is Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified. Option B requires calculated indoor air concentrations less than or equal to those established for furniture systems and seating. These are determined by a procedure based on the U.S. Environmental Technology Verification Large Chamber Test Protocol for measuring emissions of volatile organic compounds and aldehydes in commercial furniture.
Indoor Air Quality
One-third of all buildings are estimated to have serious IAQ problems. The EPA ranks indoor environmental pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, and several federal reports confirm that ranking. The indoor air we breathe can be 10 to 50 times more toxic than outdoor air. The term sick building syndrome describes buildings with poor air quality that affects the health and productivity of people who work, obtain services, or live there.
Buildings are saddled with poor indoor air quality for a variety of reasons. Today, chemicals are infused into nearly every type of building and furnishing product, whether in laminated subflooring or in the carpeting installed over it. Many combine with heat, light, and interior environmental air quality to emit toxins or poisons that are difficult to measure. The EPA states that we live, work, and play in a chemical soup, with over 60,000 chemicals now in use and less than a 10 percent understanding of their effects and their combined effects. As buildings are constructed much tighter than at any point in the past to prevent escape of energy, chemicals are often trapped inside them. Once installed, building products and furnishings off-gas, or emit VOCs, volatile organic compounds. VOCs are vapor or gaseous indoor air pollutants or chemical compounds.
Besides sources such as inks from photocopy machines, dyes from textiles, paint, and housekeeping products, many preservatives and product enhancers are integrated into textiles and building products. These include formaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen used in fabrics and carpeting, benzene, a known carcinogen, acetone, toluene, and xylene, to name some of the better-known chemicals. VOCs can potentially pose a greater health risk than hazardous waste sites, and we expose ourselves to them every day. With low outside air infiltration in most buildings today, it is little wonder that many people experience headaches, nausea, lack of concentration, overall malaise, and a host of other symptoms as they work indoor jobs. A large percentage of sick days can be blamed on the effects, slight or profound, of sick building syndrome.
Controlling Indoor Air Pollution
Indoor air pollution is best reduced by controlling the sources. Although there are few federal, state, or local legal controls, voluntary standards are worthwhile. The Greenguard Certification Program can help identify low-emitting interior products and building materials.
Other ways to voluntarily reduce indoor air pollution include allowing new textiles, carpeting, and wall coverings to off-gas for a minimum of 24 hours before occupancy, with open-window cross-ventilation and fans helping push the fumes outside. Paints and wallcovering or flooring adhesives should be applied before carpeting. New products should be allowed to air out before the space is occupied. Exhaust fans should be used in areas that tend to trap odors and in cooking areas. Construction materials or unused lengths of carpeting should be stored outside the building. Smoking should not be allowed indoors, and indoor fragrance, deodorizers, burning candles, and aerosol sprays should not be used. Ductwork should be cleaned regularly because dust, dirt, and microbial contamination can build up and send toxins into the air from heating and cooling ductwork. Construction debris should not be left in the ductwork of new construction. Textiles that may trap toxins such as tobacco smoke, and equipment that may retain toxins such as photocopy toner, should be cleaned regularly. An ionizing air purifier can help improve air quality. Indoor plants can also be introduced to absorb toxins and produce clean air. Specifically, benzene can be reduced with English ivy, Dracaena marginata, Janet Craig, warneckei, chrysanthemum, gerbera daisy, and peace lily; formaldehyde can be treated with azalea, philodendron, spider plant, golden pothos, bamboo palm, corn plant, chrysanthemum, and mother-in-law’s tongue; and trichloroethylene can be mitigated with gerbera daisy, chrysanthemum, peace lily, warneckei, and Dracaena marginata.
Greenguard Certification Program
The Greenguard Certification Program is an independent third-party testing program for low-emitting products and materials. The Greenguard Product Guide, an IAQ resource available at no charge, features products that are regularly tested to ensure their chemical and particle emissions meet acceptable IAQ pollutant guidelines and standards. Greenguard certification is a tool that design professionals, specifiers, and purchasing organizations can use to locate, specify, and purchase off-the-shelf low-emitting products for indoor environments. It is a voluntary program available to all manufacturers and their suppliers.
Today, people spend over 90 percent of their time indoors and are exposed to thousands of airborne pollutants. Products and materials indoors release volatile chemicals and particles into the air, and these may negatively affect human health or create unacceptable odors. Inadequate ventilation, high temperatures, and high humidity increase the concentration of some pollutants, leading to indoor air pollution levels up to 100 times higher than those outdoors. The EPA, the American Lung Association, the World Health Organization, and other public health and environmental organizations view indoor air pollution as one of the greatest risks to human health. Poor IAQ can lead to allergies, asthma, reproductive and developmental problems, and cancer. The economic impact is equally alarming. Poor IAQ can also harm employee health and productivity, and the EPA has estimated these costs to U.S. businesses in the tens of billions of dollars per year. Improvements in the indoor air environment may substantially increase employee morale and productivity and reduce healthcare costs.
IAQ Health Issues and Carpet Labels
People can experience health effects from indoor air pollutants soon after exposure or years later. Immediate effects include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. These immediate effects are usually short-term and treatable. Indoor air pollution may also trigger symptoms of some diseases, including asthma, dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis soon after exposure. More serious health effects may show up either years after exposure or only after long or repeated periods of exposure. These effects include some respiratory diseases, heart disease, reproductive and developmental problems, and cancer, and they can be severely debilitating or fatal. Many complaints about the indoor environment are triggered by odors. Odors, which result from the presence of volatile chemicals in the air, can severely affect people’s quality of life and work performance. These chemicals may or may not be hazardous at the levels present, but they do signal unacceptable air quality and may create considerable concern and anxiety among building occupants.
The Carpet and Rug Institute developed and administers the Green Label IAQ testing and labeling program for carpet, adhesives, cushion materials, and vacuum cleaners. Green Label Plus, an enhancement to the CRI Green Label, incorporates additional requirements to meet the criteria for low-emitting materials issued by California’s Collaborative for High-Performance Schools. Products listed as CHPS-compliant materials have been chamber tested to meet the IAQ guidelines outlined in California’s specification section 01350. Green Label Plus also incorporates ongoing product testing, making it an exceptionally stringent program for new carpet.
Long-Lived Selections and Textile Lifespan
The cycle of fashion is a driving force in interior design. To their credit, interior textiles play a major role in updating, refurbishing, and renewing interiors, even when the interior architecture stays the same. That is a problem when sustainability is the goal. For each yard of replacement textile that is purchased and installed, one yard of used fabric or carpeting becomes a burden. Because throwing something away is a fallacy, the question becomes where “away” really is. We need to look at all the alternatives for sustainability, including extending the lifespan.
One approach is to keep textiles in their present installation for a longer period. Because selling new textiles is the lifeblood of the industry and marketplace, this suggestion can sound heretical. However, carpeting, upholstery, draperies, wall panels, bedding, or linens are sometimes only slightly dated in color, pattern, or texture, while the condition of the textile is still good. To keep the installation intact, paint color can be changed, lighting can be enhanced, furnishings can be rearranged, or some but not all of the fabric can be replaced. This attitude grows from a commitment to green design rather than sales. In the long run, a conservative, do-not-replace-it-yet approach may win friends and influence people. The design firm that supports conservation may earn not only respect but also a commitment from clients to keep using textiles that are not yet worn out.
Reduce, reuse, recycle, and repair are the buzzwords of resource efficiency. To reduce means to use less energy and produce less waste in the manufacture of a product. It also means delaying replacement by reusing or repairing that item. Preventive maintenance reduces the urge to replace a textile prematurely by keeping it clean so that soiling does not do irreparable damage. In addition, the placement of textiles may be rotated to distribute use where possible. Upholstery cushions and rugs may be reversed. All textiles are subject to wear and tear and the effects of aging.
Reuse is a type of recycling in which the interior design textile is removed from its original location and placed in another space with little or no alteration. This can be done within the original building or home, by reinstalling a carpet in a different room or by moving window treatments, upholstered furniture, or linens. Textile items can also be sold directly to another user at a yard sale or on the Internet, or donated to a charitable organization for resale in a secondhand store. The EPA defines recycle or reclaim as the collection, separation, and processing by which products or other materials are recovered from or otherwise diverted from the solid waste stream. The cradle-to-cradle protocol means a product is developed using green practices and, at the end of its life, can be recycled as a new textile or another product, or can return to the earth as compostable or biodegradable. The phrase was coined by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, who jointly established the McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry protocol, which sets strict criteria for evaluating environmental impact at every stage of a product’s development.
Recycling occurs at two levels, pre-consumer or post-industrial waste and post-consumer waste. Pre-consumer or post-industrial textile waste is byproduct material from the fiber, cotton, wool, and other textile industries. Annually, 750,000 tons of pre-consumer or post-industrial waste are recycled into new raw materials for mattresses, furniture, coarse yarn, home furnishings, and other industrial products. Post-industrial recycled yarns are called seconds. In manufacturing polyester products, post-industrial seconds that do not meet bottle or film specifications are still acceptable for fiber end uses. Polyester can be broken down, remelted, and extruded into continuous monofilament yarns. One type of post-consumer recycled yarn comes from used soda bottles that have been sorted, cleaned, chopped into pellets, melted, and extruded into staple yarns. Recycled polyester is used in commercial upholstery.
One company leading the way in green manufacturing and recycled polyester is The Designtex Group, which offers a broad range of sustainable materials, including recycled upholstery and panel textiles. Examples include the Designtex/Sustainable Initiatives brand, which is a green alternative to vinyl. The Duraprene family of sustainable wallcoverings is produced with water-based inks and has a recycled fiber content of 50 percent wood pulp from sustainably managed forests, 40 percent post-industrial waste, and 10 percent post-consumer waste. A large portion of post-consumer textile waste is apparel, much of which is sold to Third World countries. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, the textile recycling industry removes 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textile product waste annually from the solid waste stream, which represents 10 pounds for every person in the United States. Of this amount, approximately 500 million pounds are used by the collecting agency, with the balance sold to textile recyclers, including used clothing dealers and exporters, wiping rag graders, and fiber recyclers. In addition, textile recycling firms purchase a large percentage of their raw materials from charitable institutions, which in turn use these funds to house, feed, and train people in need of such assistance. Industry members are able to recycle 93 percent of the waste they process without producing new hazardous waste or harmful byproducts.
Interior design textiles can be recycled in the same way. Carpeting companies are increasing their ability to reclaim carpet fiber and produce new carpet fiber from recycled sources, including recycled plastic soda bottles. Unfortunately, much of the carpeting that is removed is taken to landfills. Carpet recycling, or value recovery, is also known as carpet take-back when carpet manufacturers receive carpets for recycling at the end of their original life cycle. The CRI and its member companies are working to develop value recovery pyramids for all of the carpet systems in use today, including vinyl-backed carpet.
To repair is to extend a textile’s lifespan by bringing it back to a state of acceptability so it can continue to be useful. Sometimes a thorough cleaning brings fabric and carpet back to life. Other times, visible wear makes the owner feel it is time to throw the item out and replace it. However, many items can be repaired and continue to be useful. Examples include the restoration of worn areas of oriental rugs and the repair of small tears in fabric applications. Keeping useful products by repairing them rather than discarding them is an old-fashioned notion. The familiar aphorism, “a stitch in time saves nine,” is still valid, especially when we are conscious of green design philosophy.
The Future of Green Design
Environmental issues and solutions that relate to interior textiles are constantly changing. Students and professionals must stay up to date and informed. There is no consensus about how to specify green or how to evaluate the greenness of a material. Manufacturers should develop properly researched data that ensure their products are, in fact, green. Unsubstantiated claims by manufacturers are known as greenwashing, and all design professionals should be wary of this problem.
However, a number of green-related organizations and programs are credible and have achieved a level of respect from government agencies and the public. Certification programs that are consensus-based, meaning many professionals approve of and accept the standards they set forth, are gaining momentum and, ideally, promote companies and products whose commitment to sustainability and healthy environments is real. Companies that claim to sell green products are required by law to back their claims as specified under Life Cycle Assessment. This makes it more difficult for companies to falsely claim a product is green.
As more materials are tested and claims are made public, the subject of environmental responsibility will only become more complicated. Yet from the mass of information, some conclusions emerge: the quality of the natural and built environment matters to many people; more people each day are concerned about environmental ethics and protecting future environmental resources and human health; all design professionals can and should be informed about and be advocates of sustainability; more can be and is being done to ensure sustainability and enhanced quality of the built environment on a continuing basis; and each person’s and each company’s efforts count. The future will be shaped by those who are aware of the impact of their efforts.
Conclusion
Sustainable interior textiles bring together manufacturing practice, procurement decisions, indoor air quality, and the life cycle of materials. They also show that green design is not a single choice but a series of linked decisions, from renewable resources and low-emitting products to reuse, repair, and recycling. There is also room for upper-division undergraduate, classroom, or team projects, graduate work, and professional grant or product development in this relatively new arena and in IAQ. As the field keeps changing, the most useful habit is to stay informed, stay cautious about greenwashing, and keep making choices that support a cleaner built environment for the next generation.
