Interior Concerns Resource Guide

Interior Concerns

Resource Guide

Victoria Schomer, ASID, editor. PO Box 2386, Mill Valley, CA 94942. Spiral-bound, 230 pages. $40.

If you’ve ever wanted to look through the notebooks of an experienced “green” interior designer, this is your chance. Victoria Schomer has been compiling information on healthy building materials for years, and she has some of the most complete product lists around. Her guide includes six pages of listings on natural and nontoxic carpets, for example, and thirteen manufacturers of low-toxic paints. The guide includes background information on each topic and essays from Schomer’s

Interior Concerns Newsletter.

Sections of the

Interior Concerns Resource Guide not dealing with the indoor environment are much less complete. Chapter 2, “Concrete, Masonry and Earth Materials” lists a total of six products, for example, and Chapter 3 on “Metals and Minerals” lists only three. There are inconsistencies that make the guide a little awkward to use as well. Although there is an extensive bibliography at the back, several books appear inexplicably mixed in with the product listings. Numerous typos and grammatical flaws mar the text throughout. And some of the materials included are of questionable environmental virtue. Dow Styrofoam^® is listed as CFC-free even though, like all extruded polystyrene insulation today, it’s made with HCFCs. Finally, some of the statements are simply wrong. Schomer states that “PVC has been banned in some European countries,” when the reality is that some European towns have banned PVC from municipally financed projects; and that “Thermal mass (adobe, rammed-earth) is an excellent insulating technique.” While uninsu­lated, high-mass buildings may work well in some climates, they are a disaster in the frigid north.

While there is much that could be improved in this guide (particularly with the help of a copy-editor), there is also much of value here. The listings can save you hours of valuable time searching for the right products, and some of the articles are well researched and written. If your business requires specifying of low-toxic and natural materials, particularly for interiors, this directory may be a wise investment.