University of North Carolina, Greensboro
IN-4: Innovation 4

The Interior Architecture Department at UNCG has led the university in teaching sustainability to its students and promoting sustainable practices on campus. Over the past few years, IARc has developed a powerful resource to further advance these efforts, leading to UNCG becoming the only school with sustainable building material samples cataloged through the campus library. Paired with physical samples of many of these materials, the Sustainable Materials library provides a valuable resource for students, faculty, staff and the community to investigate sustainable options for interior projects.

This thoroughly organized collection of interior finishes is searchable via electronic catalog. Protocol sheets within the catalog detail each material’s sustainability attributes, ranging from production and harvesting practices to toxic chemical content to embodied energy factors such as transportation distance. The library equips students to make better-informed decisions about materials they use for projects and to support UNCG’s commitment to sustainability.

The IARc library is also unique because it is catalogued through the university library system. Because the Library of Congress has no procedure for organizing this type of inventory, Mary Jane Conger of the UNCG Jackson Library helped IARc establish a new cataloging scheme. The materials library catalog is searchable through the UNCG Libraries catalog, with entries including the protocol sheets as well as links to material manufacturers’ websites.

The library is also a living laboratory. The cataloging scheme integrates a standardized coding system developed by the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) – an industry standard. All UNCG interior architecture students must learn the CSI system to use the catalog, leaving them better prepared for careers in the field. Further, students in the Materials, Methods, and Technology course must acquire two green materials for the library and complete a protocol sheet that includes the manufacturer information, life cycle analysis, sustainable qualities, and contact information for those wishing to order samples. To accomplish this, students must contact companies to obtain the material samples; the experience of dealing directly with the suppliers helps students learn how to be discerning about business practices and sustainability factors. The library grows as students add about material samples annually, and students get an opportunity to make an original contribution to their field.

While the library itself is intended for student use, the electronic catalog provides valuable information for the community at large. Anyone may access the catalog and protocol sheets.

- See more at: http://research.uncg.edu/spotlight/sustainable-materials-creative-minds/#sthash.vvK9fU1O.dpuf

http://research.uncg.edu/spotlight/sustainable-materials-creative-minds/