I’ve made a pretty important decision about the salon — I’ve decided I want it to be environmentally-friendly. I want ROB|B to be LEED certified, which basically means the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will independently certify that the salon meets certain environmental standards (in areas like water savings and materials selection). I really think this green movement is going to explode, and I think ROB|B can be part of it by earning certification. It looks like we’ll be able to earn a gold rating (it’s the second highest level, behind platinum); I’m basing that on a LEED consultant’s preliminary evaluation of our location, materials, water use, and a few other site-specific criteria.

To help get this going, Nadine, salon M.O.M., checked out a platinum-certified LEED building in our area. It’s a National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) office in Santa Monica. The NRDC gives tours of the building’s green features, so she was able to pick up some things we might be able to incorporate into the salon.

I don’t think our architect, Richard Best, has ever built a LEED-certified building before, but he’s jumped in headfirst with researching the requirements. John Pohlen at Salon Equipment International is really excited too. I think it might actually make picking out salon materials easier, because it’ll put limits on what we can use — like bamboo for the cabinets and incorporating solar panels on the roof. The only downside I can see right now: it’ll cost more to build the salon.