Onoffice magazine

What makes an office building green? By most standards, it would be energy efficient and have features like ground source heating and cooling, photovoltaic panels and rainwater harvesting. It would probably boast top marks from a sustainability assessment body like BREEAM or LEED. But there is a new, quite literal, facet to the “green” trend emerging; architecture with luxuriant plant life embedded into the design. The latest built example is 18 Kowloon East in Hong Kong, which was completed late…

EPDs, or environmental product declarations, can be a bit tricky to get your head around. Basically, they provide information about the environmental impact of that shiny new chair, desk or lamp you are lusting after. But which EPDs can be trusted? And what should an EPD look like?  Martin Hoenle, design consultant and editor of thequietriot.com, favours schemes that give precise figures instead of bandying about vague claims. “My experience is it’s quite difficult to get hard numbers. I always…