Four Point Design’s Emily Pittenger, Assoc. IIDA, WELL AP, recently attended the Converge Summit, an invitation-only event hosted by the International Interior Design Association and Interface.
Emily (front row, third from left) and fellow Summit participants.
Held in Atlanta, the immersive Summit included expert panelists focusing on activism, leadership, and community through the lens of sustainability for designers starting out and emerging in their interior design careers. Emily and her 17 fellow participants also engaged in small-group discussions about how interior design professionals can advance sustainability.
“I’m grateful to have connected with this great group of designers and am excited to continue our dialogue around sustainable practices,” Emily said.
Over the Summit’s two-and-a-half days, attendees learned about topics including:
how to advance sustainability through projects, material selection, and collaboration with local product manufacturers,
the power of the design community to reduce carbon emissions and foster healthier communities,
tools and resources to help designers understand and reduce the carbon impact of building materials, and
Metropolis’ Climate Tool Kit—a resource available to designers as a framework for designing low-carbon spaces.
Speakers and panelists included Chidimma Abuka, MBA, MIA, Gensler; Verda Alexander, IIDA, Studio O+A; George Bandy Jr., Ind. IIDA, Fiber Industries LLC; Ronnie Belizaire, FIIDA, JLL; Chip DeGrace, Interface; Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA, International Interior Design Association; Erin Jende, Interface; Jay Lanier, Interface; Angie Y. Lee, FIIDA, Pembroke; Avi Rajagopal, Metropolis Magazine; Jen Ruckel, 3form; Paul Shahriari, ecomedes; Anna Webb, Interface.
Summit attendees also met the IIDA Board and sustainability leaders, toured Interface’s global headquarters to learn about their sustainable and biophilic design principles, and experienced an exclusive preview to the Museum of Design Atlanta exhibit, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture.