Expert Q&As

Q&A: Michelle Cottrell of Design Management Services Posted By Anne Pyburn Craig

From basketball associations to Indian tribes, from banks to schools, Design Management Services takes pride in "creating the perfect space" for any endeavor- and "perfect" definitely includes "sustainable." MGB spoke to founder Michelle Cottrell about her process and the State of the Green Art.

You say the success of Design Management and of the sustainable building industry is based on "triple bottom line values and integrated design process." What are these, how do they align with each other, and how do they contribute to the market transformation of green building?

Traditionally, an architect and developer would review the intentions and capabilities of a project, and they might hire a civil engineer to help evaluate a site as a side note.

Every sustainable project should begin with the determination of the triple bottom line goals to be achieved: social, economic, and environmental.

So on a sustainable project, we bring the owner, developer, architect, all the engineers, and even the contractor to the table at the very beginning. The goal is to establish and evaluate each decision and every component based on the social, economic, and environmental equity for each individual project. Aligning the entire project team with triple bottom line goals allows for integrated design and budgeting. This helps to mitigate any value engineering- everyone is aware from the very beginning what the budget is and how we intend to stay within that budget.

Besides the obvious- recycling, maybe- are there green elements to the process part of operating a business that can translate to almost any endeavor?

Here too, every decision must look at the triple bottom line equity and value- weigh each decision against the economic, social, and environmental benefits to you, your wallet, and the earth. We actually work with a number of businesses, helping them by creating policies they can conform to in order to help them do their part to better the environment.

A few starter thoughts: Think about all of the facets of your business that require energy. How much power do you use during the day? How can you reduce that usage? Do you turn off all of the computers and equipment at the end of the day? Do you provide artificial lighting to spaces that are not constantly occupied? How about your mechanical system- when was the last time it was checked for efficiency? I am well aware of unbalanced systems creating an uncomfortable work environment and therefore creating an inefficient work place. As business owners, our biggest expense is our employees. Why not help our team members work more productively?

What about transportation –the transportation of the products you sell? What kind of trucks are you using and how efficient are they? Or what about your entire staff’s commuting endeavors- how far are they coming from and what mode of transportation do they use to get to the office?
How about the products you use to run your business – how sustainable and healthy are they? Not only should you recycle as much as possible, but how many products do you purchase with recycled content? How far are the products coming from? What about the cleaning products that are used to sanitize the workplace- are they GreenSeal certified?

These are just some of the ideas involved in corporate social responsibility to the environment. There are many more opportunities, things everyone involved can do to operate a business more sustainably.

I understand it is a different approach and outlook than most are used to, but there are many resources available to help with the process.

How close are we to a sort of tipping point where green becomes essential, the standard for good design? Have we reached it, is it on the horizon?

I believe we are at a point where we stopped asking ourselves “How can we do this?” and starting asking ourselves “How can we NOT?” Designing and building efficiently and sustainably has become easier than just a year ago. We have seen mandates to achieve certain minimum levels of certification, and that’s fantastic. But building to silver certification NOW is not the same as 3 years ago, and that is how we are going to make a bigger impact on climate change.

How exactly is it different now? How has designing and building sustainably become easier and how has certification changed?

Finding compliant products has become much easier, as has obtaining the documentation from the manufacturer proving that compliance. For example, an adhesive product is not only critiqued on where it is shipped from, but also for its VOC level. Manufacturers are more aware of the documentation requirements, therefore streamlining the construction phase of the certification process.

The process of certification has changed, as have the minimum requirements to achieve certification. LEED was not always online - there once was a time we had to mail/ship the documentation to the USGBC for review….now we simply upload it!