Penny Bonda, sustainability leader: Focus on Leadership

Interview by Kemp Harr

Penny Bonda was a working interior designer for more than two decades when, as national president of the American Society of Interior Designers, she attended the U.S. Green Building Council’s 1995 meeting in Big Sky, Montana and heard Paul Hawkins speak.

From that point onward, Bonda shifted her focus from interior design to sustainable design, diving headfirst into the early stages of the green building movement. Today, Bonda has just finished the second edition of her book, Sustainable Commercial Interiors, and works as an environmental consultant through her firm, Ecoimpact Consulting. Bonda, often called the “mother of green interiors,” is the founding chair and primary author of the U.S. Green Building Council committee for the LEED Commercial Interiors rating system. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Q: What happened in your career that drove you to change from being an interior designer to becoming the “mother of green interiors”?
A: In the mid-nineties, after working as a commercial interior designer for 25 years, I came to the following realization: designers are sometimes guilty of bad or even dehumanizing design. I have personally created some of the most awful environments—offices that stifle, suppress, choke or, at the very least, bore their occupants. I’ve put people in overly bright rooms with enough glare on their computer screens to guarantee nightly headaches. I’ve stuck them in dark, confined spaces and surrounded them with co-workers they can hear too loudly. I’ve specified materials that off-gas noxious chemicals, which have likely contributed to untold health problems. I’ve sat quiet when decisions were made, based solely on economics, that I knew full well would result in unsafe environments. If I did speak out, it wasn’t loud enough. Much of what I have done has been harmful, and at some point, I began to question my ability to do this kind of work.

Q: Do you feel there is as much passion behind the green movement today as there was ten years ago, before the novelty wore off?
A: There is as much passion, but it’s changed. The excitement of developing an entirely new industry—by a relatively small number of pioneers—evolved to widespread acceptance by the entire building sector. Today, the passion is in the challenge of continually raising the bar of what constitutes green building.

Q: Who are the green thought leaders today?
A: There are several who I met in Big Sky back in 1995 that have remained active: Lynn Simon of Thornton Tomasetti and Bill Browning of Terrapin Bright Green, for example. Then there’s Jason McLennan with the Living Building Challenge. Several General Services Administration folks that are doggedly focused: Kevin Kampschroer, Donald Horn and Judy Heerwagen. Two guys with the Healthy Building Network: Bill Walsh and Tom Lent. I also need to mention John Knott with the Health Product Declaration Group.

Q: What compelled you to write a second edition of Sustainable Commercial Interiors eight years after you wrote the first one? What changed the most during that time period?
A: My co-author, Katie Sosnowchik, and I realized that the information in our first book was largely outdated. The green building industry is constantly evolving as advanced technologies and creative professionals provide new tools and methods to assist design teams establish new benchmarks. LEED is an excellent example. The 2006 first edition featured LEED for Commercial Interiors Version 2.0; three years later, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) introduced Version 2009 (v3) followed by v4 in 2014. Each iteration and interim updates tweaked existing credits and introduced new ones, reflecting advances in the field. Originally our publisher, Wiley, suggested that we just refresh about 30% of the book, but in the end, it ended up being about 80% new information.

Q: What advice do you give an interior design specifier of interior finishes on how to navigate through the greenwash and separate the truth from the fluff? By the way, I love the Nine Types of Greenwashing list included in the book.
A: That is a good list written by Tristan Roberts for BuildingGreen. Tools such as independent third-party certifications and standards are a designer’s best defense against greenwash. I’d also advise specifiers to give preference to products that have been through a vigorous lifecycle analysis process, such as the one commissioned by Excel Dryer that is featured in the book.

Q: Today’s focus is on transparency in the form of product declarations and assessments, which are validated by third party accreditors for a fee. How does a supplier strike a balance between substantiating their claims and offering a genuinely green product for a fair price? Said differently, how much should it cost to prove you are doing what you say you are doing?
A: It is my hope that manufacturers will view the costs of verifying their products’ environmental claims as an essential cost of doing business as designers become more knowledgeable about the value of transparency. Like Interface’s CEO Dan Hendrix said, “The new standards of accountability will ultimately spur new levels of innovation, as customers begin to understand the impacts of their purchasing decisions and demand more from business and industry.”

Q: When you assess all the sustainability factors of indoor air quality, recyclability, carbon footprint/embodied energy and lifecycle assessment (LCA), what do you think is the best option for evaluating floorcovering?
A: There’s no question about it: lifecycle analysis is the best option. LCAs cover it all as they examine the environmental impact of all products from the raw materials used in manufacturing to the packaging and transport of the finished product to its installation, operation, use and finally to its disposal. However, it is essential that an independent third-party LCA expert conduct the analysis.

Q: Whose feathers did you ruffle the most by publishing this book?
A: The new book hasn’t been out long enough for me to hear who is miffed, but, based on past experiences, I would guess that the vinyl industry is most likely to be upset by some of the content.

Q: You refer to the lobbying efforts of the America High-Performance Buildings Coalition (AHPBC) to coax the federal government to move away from the LEED system. Do you have other examples of powerful organizations attempting to derail environmental efforts because of their vested interests?
A: Certain segments of the forest industry have long battled USGBC over wood certifications but have not tried to derail environmental efforts, as the AHPBC and the American Chemical Council have.

Q: How big a threat do these lobbying efforts and other strong-arm strategies pose to the green movement?
A: As we say in the book, to date the efforts of AHPBC have failed. I firmly believe the green movement is too vital, too commonplace and too big to stop.

Q: In your book, you acknowledge the Living Building Challenge Red List. Do you think those materials should be banned from use in interior spaces?
A: Yes, except in the very few instances where there are no or few viable alternatives. The use of mercury in fluorescent lighting is an example. As LED technology develops, it will eventually replace fluorescent lighting, but that’s a long way off. In the meantime, the lighting industry has developed new fluorescent lamps that contain such a small amount of mercury that they are no longer considered a hazardous waste.

Q: As you examine all facets of the green aspect of interior spaces, where do you think most of the attention should be directed to make the greatest impact in the near term?
A: Interior spaces and the buildings that house them consume nearly as much energy as transportation and industry combined. Therefore, the imperative to address the energy use impacts of buildings, both new and renovated, is clear because of the global threat of climate change. Equally urgent is the recognition of the connection between the quality of interior spaces and human health. As USGBC president Rick Fedrizzi said, health will be the biggest driver in the green building industry in the next 20 years.

Q: Now that you know what you know about the indoor air quality in most U.S. commercial buildings, do you try to spend more time outside?
A: Actually, it depends where I am. In some places—China, for example—indoor air is likely to be healthier than outdoor air, especially in a green building. In my own home, where I spend most of my time, I’ve tried to minimize air quality hazards by eliminating the sources of indoor air pollution and installing highly efficient HVAC filtration.

Q: Will we see you at Greenbuild this year?
A: You know, I’ve attended every Greenbuild since the beginning, but due to a family commitment, I’m going to have to miss New Orleans this year—and that’s a shame because it’s such a great city to visit.

Print the Article