Protecting environment

Green interiors are in demand

Charmaine FERNANDO

Wood adds value to a building and enhances the aesthetic appeal but that does not demand you to jeopardise the environment to please a client's infatuation for all things wooden.

How do you strike a happy balance? Where does it lead one when one Kumbuk tree is felled in its maturity to line the stairway? It would take a good hundred years to have another take its place from sapling to maturity.

Environment- friendly office interior

In a global economic crisis backdrop, can we ill-afford the luxury? At a time when the Kyoto Protocol is making us feel guilty at every turn and the global warming is making mankind lose its cool, do we look at the profitability in rupees and cents or what it literally 'cost the earth'? The impact of global warming cannot be reversed; we need only play for time.

That's why as a global fraternity, getting up close and personal with everything green has picked up a leap in demand in the market. Green measures are driven from the front in Sri Lanka with much conscientious effort.

Sunday Observer Business spoke to Ranjith Perera, Managing Director of R.M. Perera (Pvt) Limited, a leading businessman who is dedicated to the cause of turning out green interiors and green furniture.

Every little item used in making the interior, he explained, is produced in a way it weighed less on the environment.

The end-product would appeal to one's aesthetic senses and offer maximum benefits to the end user. More and more natural, recyclable material are innovatively utilised to get closer to nature, keep pollution at bay and maintain eco balance at par.

While seeking to penetrate new markets Perera is proactively supplying the local corporate and residential demands with Green furniture and green interior solutions.

Alternatives

His theory is simple and green. Alternative material to wood such as melamine is utilised to save the rain forests and to prevent well grown trees being cut down. Replanting at sapling level would take approximately a hundred years to grow to maturity.

Gypsum Boards are used wherever possible. Its base, limestone, unlike wood can be finished in any colour and its acoustic qualities transfer less sound adding value, versatility and utility. Rough cut limestone may be used as decorative panels in interiors which prove unique adding aesthetic value.

Glass is another eco friendly recyclable product ideal for interior finishes and furniture.

Wherever its necessary he uses wood sparingly.

He uses grained shavings to give real wood finishes to plywood or anyother non-wood material such as melamine and MDF. 90 percent of wood is saved in this method despite the 'presence of wood.

Recyclable material is always utilised to prevent environment pollution and related hazards.

For flooring in his interior projects he opts for coir, rush or reed matting, to sustain harmony with nature.

Solar power

Energy-saving lighting systems can reduce energy waste upto 80 percent he affirms and alternative energy sources like solar lighting is maintenance free and uses absolutely no energy source other than the natural sunlight. No bulbs.

No flickering. Only one off investment on the light panels which directly provide the lighting without monthly bills. Solar power though not as popular as it should be is the ideal alternate source of energy we can harness throughout the year in sunny Sri Lanka. Solar power is utilised in developed countries primarily to save energy and for saving overhead costs.

Perera's office design solutions called 'Streamline' and living environment solutions under the 'Pleasure' label have found a stable niche in the market.

The company has a state-of-the-art wood working factory in Boralesgamuwa, just 12km from Colombo where a skilled work force turn out a full range of modern green furniture and green interior fittings for the office, hotel and residence.