81 Green design ideas While operational emissions can be addressed through improvements to energy efficiency or switching to better fuels and renewables over time, embodied carbon emissions from construction enter the atmosphere as soon as a structure is built. For this reason, it makes sense to prioritise green construction and material choices during the planning and design stage. This can mean reducing refurbishment interventions by reusing furniture and fittings, along with extending the life of existing materials and products and choosing lower-carbon materials for essential works.1 Environmentally friendly ‘eco-design’ approaches seek to reduce harmful environmental impacts across the life cycle of products, taking into consideration everything from extraction of raw materials to production, distribution, use, recycling and disposal. The focus is on minimising environmental impact and maximising business impact along the life cycle by designing a circular system around them. When it comes to improving the maintenance, refurbishment and cost-effective disassembly of ship interiors, maritime designers can benefit from developments in the aviation world, where moves to reduce the impact of material extraction are underway. Strategies such as enabling reuse, facilitating disassembly, ensuring materials are identifiable (especially composites) and prioritising in-life upgrades are predicted to have a profound positive effect on the life cycle impact of cabins. In particular, incremental weight reduction of cabin components, while challenging, can help reduce resource consumption and GHGs.2 1 Source: Carbon Leadership Forum, The Carbon Challenge 2 Source: Aerospace Technology Institute, FlyZero Report A checklist for sustainable design According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), “good design depends on informed material selection, balancing priorities to achieve durable, safe, and healthy projects with an equitable, sustainable supply chain to minimise possible negative impacts to the planet.” The AIA sets out a series of questions that prompt better decisions in this process: • What factors or priorities will be considered in making material selection decisions? • How are materials and products selected and designed to reduce embodied carbon and environmental impacts while enhancing building performance? • How can material selection reduce hazards and support equitable labour practices in the supply chain? • How does the project promote zero waste throughout its life cycle? • How does the project celebrate local materials and craft? • How long will the project last, and how does that affect your material? Source: The American Institute of Architects, Design for Resources
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