Eric Corey Freed: The Future of Sustainable Design

Eric Corey Freed on Bold Innovation in Green Building

“Don’t wait to be asked to do something innovative.” —Eric Corey Freed

Eric Corey Freed is an award-winning architect, author, and global speaker. As senior vice president of sustainability for CannonDesign, he leads his company’s healthcare, education, and commercial teams toward better and higher-performing buildings for over 15 million square feet a year. For two decades, he was founding principal of organicARCHITECT, a visionary design leader in biophilic and regenerative design. His past roles include vice president of the International Living Future Institute and chief community officer of EcoDistricts, both nonprofits pushing innovative new paradigms for deep green buildings and communities. Freed is the author of 12 books, including “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies.” In 2012, he was named one of the “Top 10 Most Influential Green Architects.” In 2017, he was named one of Build’s American Architecture Top 25. He holds a prestigious LEED Fellow award from the US Green Building Council. He has taught the Sustainable Design Capstone program at Boston Architectural College since 2013. 

Freed will be one of three keynote speakers at NYSID’s Teaching Green symposium for design educators on October 8–9. This two-day virtual and in-person symposium on making sustainability a cornerstone of design education will feature Andrew Revkin, director of the Initiative on Communication, Innovation, and Impact at the Earth Institute; Jennifer Graham, principal, Perkins&Will; Avinash Rajagopal, editor-in-chief, Metropolis Magazine; and many other thought-leaders in sustainability and green design. The conference will challenge the design community to create spaces that are not only beautiful and healthy, but also responsible, ethical, and effective. Here’s a taste of what Eric Corey Freed has to say about the way forward for deep green buildings. 

NYSID: What movements and innovations in sustainable design excite you?  

ECF: Well, I’m excited about all of it. There’s so much going on, but I’ll encapsulate it in three major movements. To start, there’s the big drive toward net zero energy.  

NYSID: Will you define net zero energy as it exists in your practice?  

ECF: Net zero energy refers to buildings that produce more energy than they consume. First, you need to understand the reason why this is so important: The design, construction, and operations of buildings are responsible for more than half of the carbon emissions related to climate change. By making a net zero building, we are essentially making a building that is not contributing to emissions because we are “zeroing out” the impact of the building; the building is producing more energy than it’s consuming. Now, the way we do this is we look at the skin of the building—Is it a high-performance, energy-efficient skin? We look at the systems in the building, specifically the mechanical systems, the lighting, all the plug loads. We look at the orientation and massing of the building so that way we’re not getting a ton of sun in the summer when we don’t want it adding burden to the cooling system, and we are maximizing the sunlight in the winter when we need it to drive down the heating bill. We build an ultra-energy-efficient, high-performance building, and then we put solar panels, wind turbines, or geothermal energy systems into the design to make up for the energy the building uses.  

NYSID: Apologies—I interrupted before you could explain the other two major movements in sustainable design. What are they? 

ECF: There are exciting new ways to track, measure, and mitigate embodied carbon. When we’re talking about embodied carbon, we’re referring to all the upfront effort and energy that goes into making something. For example, that shirt you’re wearing, that has a carbon footprint. There’s the impact of sourcing the materials and dyes, there’s the energy of making it, and there’s the packing and shipping it from afar. Every product has an embodied carbon footprint. Of all the carbon emissions that come from buildings, about half come from running the building and its systems, the other half come from the embodied carbon from making it. Think about a traditional building: all of that drywall, steel, and concrete. Just the production of concrete, specifically, the ingredient of Portland cement, is responsible for 8 to 12% of all carbon emissions in the world every year! It’s a massive amount of wasted energy that can be conserved if there’s a system to track and measure embodied carbon. These systems empower people to make better choices. 

The third movement is materiality, which has become a large science. Materiality really affects the health profile of the building. I’m designing a cancer center in New Jersey now, and I asked the client, Wouldn’t it be a good idea to avoid all known carcinogens in the cancer center? They said, Of course, which is great, but shouldn’t this be the goal for every cancer center, for every building? Well, it’s not. Most of the traditional building materials commonly used are horribly toxic: the paints, the caulking, the sealants, the solvents, the adhesives, the formaldehyde that holds the cabinetry together. All of this forms a toxic soup that is horrible for human health. We’re now able to track, measure, and find out about the effect of these things on human health and behavior. We’ve got it down to a science in which we can track in parts per billion how human beings will be affected by the interiors.  

With data, I can do amazing things with healthier materials, better ventilation, energy efficiency, and biophilic design, such as reduce absenteeism (through the use of fresh air), increase productivity (through the selection of healthy finishes), boost cognitive performance (by designing an approach to daylight and views), produce higher valuations (through certification and process), retain talent (through wellness and air quality), lower premiums (by planning for resilience), slash operating costs (through better energy performance), produce higher profit per square foot (using post occupancy evaluations), and reduce patient length of stay (through a therapeutic environment). That’s just the beginning. 

NYSID: Why do you teach sustainable design? What’s your advice about teaching sustainability? 

ECF: One reason I teach is that I need to have an impact. I measure my success in terms of positive change, and teaching is a direct line into that. There are thousands of students I’ve gotten to influence and learn from in my many years as an instructor (of architecture students).  

I think just about every student that starts in sustainability is optimistic, but then they hit this wall of reality, when they realize how bad it is and what we’re up against. It’s like the five stages of grief, in which the final stage is acceptance, when students realize it’s really up to them to do something. This is the big moment of opportunity, and what I teach is sustainability as an opportunity. It’s not about already having the knowledge: we are doing things now that did not exist 18 months ago. The point is to ask the questions and seek out the answers. All you need is a better idea. If you can communicate that idea, you will attract people to you who can help you bring that vision to life. The most important thing I teach is this: Don’t wait to be asked to do something innovative. You have to make change happen. You don’t have to wait to be a sustainability expert. You just have to have a bold vision that solves a problem. 

Teaching Green Symposium: October 8 & 9, 2021

We invite you to join this leader in deep green building at NYSID’s “Teaching Green Symposium: A Symposium on Sustainability in Interior Design Education” where he will be a keynote speaker, with reception to follow. This event is hybrid with a mixture of on-site and live-stream events. All presentations will be viewable via live-stream and all participants will have opportunity to participate in live Q&A. For tickets, registration and more information about the full event, please see teachinggreen.nysid.edu . 

The Teaching Green Symposium is sponsored by The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, as the primary donor.  Keynote sponsors are Benjamin Moore, Material Bank, Perkins & Will and Sandow Media Group. Segment sponsors include Ennead Architects, IIDA NY, Design For Health™ by MindClick, Robin Reigi Architectural Materials/Plyboo and mebl | Transforming Furniture. Organization partners include USGBC, Sustainable Furnishings Council, the Building Energy Exchange, International Well Building Institute.