IIDA’s Northern and Southern California Chapters Honor State Assemblymember Mike Gipson
Jade Li, President IIDA SoCal, Assemblymember Mike Gipson, Nicole Dehlin-Grant, VP of Advocacy IIDA SoCal
IIDA is proud to recognize State Assemblymember Mike Gipson as the 2022 Legislator of the Year recipient. This annual award recognizes an elected official who has put forth extraordinary effort on behalf of causes championed by the commercial interior design community. IIDA leaders presented the award in October at his district office in Gardena, California in Los Angeles County.
Asm. Gipson represents the 64th Assembly District encompassing much of the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. He served for nearly a decade as a councilmember for the city of Carson before his election to the California State Assembly in 2014. Since 2016, he’s held the position of Democratic Caucus Chair, a role responsible for helping drive the legislative priority for members of his caucus.
Asm. Gipson has met with representatives from IIDA’s Northern and Southern California boards multiple times over the years, including this past spring during the 2022 sunset review process for interior design regulation. Asm. Gipson impressively recalled specific details of IIDA’s recommendations for modernization of California’s interior design regulation, recognizing both the negative impacts of current regulation on professionals and the public, and the opportunity for positive change, encouraging IIDA advocates to continue pursuing the elevation of the commercial interior design profession.
Moreover, Gipson’s legislative accomplishments and policy platform achieve progress with a lens of equity and justice. IIDA’s California chapters recognize the imperative responsibility of the commercial interior design profession to pursue justice in our industry and our communities and seek to offer the expertise of its members to lawmakers in their work.
EHDD’s approach to sustainability has evolved over the firm’s 75-year history, from an early emphasis on “appropriate design” to designing some of the first net zero projects to our current focus on climate positive design. Since we launched the open access Early Phase Integrated Carbon (EPIC) assessment last summer, we’ve also been thinking beyond our own practice. Now, our low-carbon design tools are used by over 1,800 architects, engineers, real estate professionals, and designers across the country.
Our recent work has focused on giving interior designers a greater opportunity to participate in climate action. Opt.In (a tool to opt in to climate action by optimizing interiors) will offer designers a hot spot map to understand and lower the carbon emissions related to their design by exploring the effects of reuse, material efficiency, and product selection. Currently under development, we expect an open access version of Opt.In to be released sometime in 2023.
As we turn the corner to the cooler months of the year, the summer heat isn’t the only thing coming to an end. The Legislature has wrapped up its work for the year, and now all members are back in their districts. Now that all bills have either stalled or been sent to the Governor, we wanted to provide a status check of the bills on which IIDA had positions during the 2022 legislative session. As a quick reminder, both chapters of IIDA supported several bills this year – SB 1297 and AB 1369 which aimed to reduce the construction industry’s impact on global warming, and AB 2164 to improve disability access to commercial buildings.
SB 1297 by Senator Dave Cortese moved through the legislative process with relative ease, getting through committee hearings in a mostly partly-line vote. The bill, like so many others, failed to make it off the Suspense File of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which is a parking lot for bills that are deemed to have extraordinary cost to the state to implement. For a bill to make it off the Suspense File, Committee chairs, leadership, and the author’s office must agree to that move. The second house appropriations committee is the place where most bills have their final resting spot, and unfortunately SB 1297 was unable to escape that fate.
Meanwhile, AB 1369 by Assemblymember Steve Bennett was able to clear the Suspense File, the author moved it to the inactive file on the Senate Floor, meaning he did not want to pursue the bill, or did not think he had the votes to pass the bill from the floor to the Governor. Whatever the rationale, this bill is also dead for the year.
Our bright spot is AB 2164, which was passed from the Senate Floor to the Governor at the end of August. The bill will make permanent a source of funding that was set to expire on January 1, 2024, that local governments leverage to provide financial assistance to small businesses to improve disability access. Given the central role universal design plays in the practice of every commercial interior designer, this bill was an easy one to support. Governor Newsom has until the end of September to sign the bill, veto it, or do nothing (in which case the bill becomes law).
IIDA has alerted the Governor’s Office to our position on the bill, and now, we wait. Check back to learn what comes of AB 2164! Though this bill was not among those he took action on, the Governor recently signed several bills into law to combat climate change which you can learn more about that bill package here.
Christina Marcellus Capitol Advisors Group IIDA’s California Lobbyist
RMW’s objective for every interior project is to consider the health and wellness of our clients and most importantly the impact we have on the planet when building these beautiful interior spaces. Every project we strive to learn from our past projects and build in a more efficient climate conscious way. It is an arduous task to calculate and quantify our climate impact for each project, completely on our own.
Through much trial and error, our team found Tally, a carbon calculator tool. This tool can use our project information from Revit and give us a rough measurement of our climate impact. Tally is not a perfect tool and comes with its own challenges. We found it is a great tool for comparing design options in the beginning phases of a project. To really delve into specific interior materials, we found we needed to combine the use of Tally with EC3. EC3 is another program that connects with Tally and allows us to take the design to a DD level and compare specific products and their climate impact. We are currently working with a repeat client on a new interior buildout. With the use of Tally and EC3, we can compare our past projects with this new one. We can compare the specific materials used in the past projects with the new materials we want to use. This allows us to see if we improved our climate impact and how we can reduce even more. We hope to continue using these tools to evaluate our design and material choices throughout the design process for every project.
Last year, IIDA’s legislative relations hit a major and meaningful milestone, with both California chapters taking support positions on bills aimed at limiting construction’s carbon footprint. This year, IIDA’s legislative wingspan continues to broaden. The Northern and Southern California chapters again adopted support positions on two climate-related bills, and also voted to support a measure that would improve disability access to commercial buildings and provide funding for that work.
SB 1297, authored by Bay Area Senator Dave Cortese, promotes use of low-carbon building and construction materials. Senator Cortese authored the suite of bills that garnered IIDA’s support last year, and also earned the California chapters’ first-ever Legislator of the Year Award. SB 1297 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 3.
Sharing SB 1297’s climate-conscious building objectives, AB 1369 (Bennett, D – Ventura) would make important changes to the Buy Clean California Act (BCCA) of 2017 to provide updated and thorough information on the global warming impact of building and construction projects. AB 1369 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 1.
SB 1297 and AB 1369 are closely aligned to the objectives of the IIDA Climate Action Committee, which you can learn more about here.
Finally, AB 2164 by San Jose member Alex Lee, would allow small businesses to access funds from business license or permit filings for disability access improvements. Additionally, the bill would make permanent the collection of those fees, which would provide a reliable funding source for the accessibility improvements. Supporting this bill was an easy decision for IIDA leadership to make. Commercial interior designers conceptualize and execute public environments, and we have the responsibility and distinct honor to champion universal design practices. AB 2164 acknowledges the importance of that practice, and would support California’s small businesses in implementing them as well. “Universal design was a matter of practice before it was a matter of law,” says IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl Durst, Hon. FIIDA, LEED AP. “IIDA believes that access and equity are inherent in what designers do, AB 2164 is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
California remains the vanguard of progressive environmental and social change. IIDA members understand the impacts that our built environments have on our precious natural environments, and are uniquely positioned to minimize those impacts.
These three bills will be heard again in committee, and if passed out, will also need to pass a full floor vote before they reach Governor Newsom for either passage or veto. Check back in with the IIDA Newsroom for additional updates.
IIDA Northern California VP of Advocacy, Laura Taylor, IIDA and Assistant VP of Advocacy, Adam Newton, Associate IIDA testify in person in Sacramento during the 2022 CCIDC Sunset Review Hearing, encouraging lawmakers to take time to study the specific issues related to commercial interior designer’s regulation and practice privileges dictated by legislation that has not been meaningfully updated in 30 years.
Governor Newsom released his budget proposal for 2022-23, which includes billions of dollars in proposed investments to fight and prepare for climate change, and to tackle the growing challenges surrounding homelessness and access to housing.
The Governor’s climate change action plan includes a tremendous infusion of resources for Zero-Emission Vehicles, transit, clean energy, and sustainable planning. You can read more about the Governor’s climate related budget proposal here. As these proposed investments are discussed in the legislature over the next several months, IIDA will continue to champion climate and energy solutions, and work with policymakers to make sure they know the role interior designers have in reaching our state’s climate goals.
Building off prior years’ investments, the Governor proposes to spend around $2 billion to help local governments tackle homeless and housing instability, which Newsom has declared one of California’s major “existential crises.” In tackling both climate change
and housing availability, the Governor envisions robust partnerships with local governments to find and develop housing sites near jobs, services, and schools. He hopes to accomplish this through programs such as infill and adaptive reuse grants, and mixed-income housing loans for developers. Acknowledging the linkage between homelessness and mental health, Newsom proposes $2 billion over two years to provide housing support for those with complex behavioral health considerations and people living in encampments. More detail on the Governor’s vision on housing and homelessness can be found here.
There are clear connections between the Administration’s policy priorities and the work of interior designers, and IIDA shares the Governor’s commitment to making meaningful progress on climate change, housing, and mental health. Smart and sustainable planning and design will be crucial to meeting the state’s goals, and we look forward to staying engaged as these budget proposals are considered and hopefully included in the final budget deal.
This year, IIDA took an important step in its advocacy efforts when both the Northern and Southern California Chapters of IIDA voted to support Senate Bills (SB) 31 and 32, both authored by Senator Dave Cortese from Santa Clara. In a nutshell, both bills were aimed at promoting building decarbonization to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and in turn, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More information about IIDA’s entry into this type of legislation here.
Representatives of both IIDA chapters met early on with Senator Cortese’s staff to seek clarification on the bill language, and to commend the Senator for taking bold action on this crucial issue. The Senator’s office expressed gratitude for our support on these measures, and understood that commercial interior designers have key role to play in the implementation of whatever steps we take to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, especially in the new building inventory that will be built between now and 2045, when California hopes to meet its goal of relying entirely on zero-emission energy sources.
As can often happen with bills like this that propose sweeping reform (often with high price tags associated), these bills both stalled in the Senate. SB 31 has been designated a two-year bill (meaning Senator Cortese can continue to work on this bill and add it to his legislative package again in 2022-23), and SB 32 died in the Appropriations Committee.
“While this may sound disheartening, it’s a very common outcome for bills of this nature, and there are some key factors to note when putting that outcome into context,” said Christina Marcellus, IIDA’s California lobbyist. First off, as a post-COVID organizational rule, Legislative leadership imposed a strict 12 bill limit on every member of the Legislature. This limit was imposed in mid-May, just as both SBs 31 and 32 were set to be heard in the Senate Appropriations committee. “For every author with more than 12 bills total, difficult decisions had to be made,” Marcellus said. Senator Cortese has a robust bill package, and perhaps figured that other bills he was authoring had a better chance of success this year than either of these, and had to make that difficult call not to pursue them.
While these bills ultimately weren’t successful this year, Senator Cortese is new to the Legislature and IIDA’s California chapters support the Senator in continuing to be a champion for clean energy climate solutions. While legislation is the main vehicle to advance a policy change, it’s also possible that these types of programs get funded directly through the state budget, which can sometimes make bills with a similar goal obsolete.
IIDA’s involvement in legislation not directly related to the design industry is a crucial step in expanding awareness of the work interior designers do, and the role they play in the health, welfare and safety not only of people who inhabit their designed spaces, but also of our natural environment. We will continue to look for on-ramps like this into areas related to our work to build partnerships, develop awareness, and enhance IIDA’s profile in Sacramento.
In a landmark move, IIDA’s Northern and Southern California boards both voted to publicly support California Senate Bills 31 and 32 at their April meetings. SB 31 and 32 target the decarbonization of buildings as a way of combating global warming; this is an area of clear importance to our industry, and where we can have a direct impact. Both the Northern and Southern California chapters of IIDA were eager to take this step and become public advocates for these new pieces of legislation.
The bills were introduced by State Senator Dave Cortese of District 15 (Santa Clara County). SB 31 would require the state’s Energy Commission to use some state and federal funds to implement regulatory programs promoting decarbonization for new and existing buildings, while SB32 addresses how cities and counties in California plan for energy efficiency, directing them to specifically target decarbonization as well. IIDA’s Northern and Southern California boards felt these sensible measures align with our mission for several reasons:
First, IIDA values sustainability and believes more radical action is needed to move the needle on slowing and ultimately reversing climate change. On the heels of the United States’ renewed commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, we believe that climate action implemented in California will set a sweeping example for the country and the world to follow.
Echoing this first point, IIDA Northern California’s President-Elect, Verda Alexander, recently launched a joint-chapter initiative to increase commercial interior designer’s participation in climate action—citing the responsibility of designers to meet this challenge, considering that buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption in the United States.
Second, IIDA members are experts in a wide-ranging field and can employ that perspective and expertise to create positive change, following a strong precedent set by other professional associations in our industry including the AIA (American Institute of Architects) and ASME (American Society for Mechanical Engineers), who have weighed in on similar legislation.
Finally, misconceptions about commercial interior designers are still common in our state and local governments, and joining this kind of discussion makes us more visible and gives us the chance to shine a light on what we do. “As IIDA engages with lawmakers regarding SB31 and SB32, we also have the opportunity to educate our representatives about our profession, our skills, and our impact on the health and safety of their constituents,” says Laura Taylor, VP of Advocacy for IIDA’s Northern California chapter. “This work not only elevates our image as a profession, but also builds relationships with policy makers who could one day introduce or vote on legislation that will impact our practice.”
SB31 and SB32 are set for hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee where arguments and amendments will be heard and the bills will be formally voted on. If the bills get out of their current Committee, they will head to the Senate Floor for a vote by the full body. Check back to IIDA’s newsroom for Part 2 including a detailed breakdown of SB31 and SB32 by IIDA’s California lobbyist.
IIDA representative present one part of it’s $40K+ donation to Homes for Sonoma
Sonoma County, north of the San Francisco Bay, covers a large area, but it is a tight community with very few degrees of separation among its residents. When the 2017 Tubbs Fire took out nearly 6,000 homes in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County’s largest city, everyone was affected to some degree.
1 in 5 people had to evacuate, often with little warning and no time to save possessions. If you weren’t one of them, you knew someone who was. By the second day of the disaster, I had a space planner from Sonoma County and a furniture installer for a local dealership staying at my house in Petaluma with their family. They had lost everything and gotten out with minutes to spare before their Santa Rosa home burned to the ground.
Responding to a crisis like the Tubbs Fire is, at base, a design problem. What do survivors need in the short-, mid-, and long-term? What do cities and organizations need to help those evacuees, and to shore up and redirect their own infrastructure? These are the kinds of questions we designers are adept at understanding—and where our organized creative process provides a proven path to solutions.
In 2017, our North Bay City Center Director, Christina Pratt, Assoc. IIDA, owner of Trope Group, the local Herman Miller dealer had been evacuated from her home in the more rural part of Sonoma County, and Trope Group’s offices became a gathering space and safe haven for her employees who had been evacuated. With their usual work at a standstill, Trope Group put their centralized location and their fleet of trucks to use. They quickly set up a process for collecting supplies from local businesses and donation centers and delivering them to the shelters and evacuation facilities where they were desperately needed.
As the fire was contained and we began to look for next steps, individuals grappled with rebuilding while the cities and county faced an even bigger problem: the devastation of the fire had made our housing crisis much worse. Our homeless population had increased and some of the resources they’d relied on had disappeared—and, given the high costs in our area, many folks were simply finding it impossible to replace the homes they’d lost.
Only a short time later, a multi-disciplinary group of design professionals got together to brainstorm about how design thinking could help to re-house people quickly and efficiently—and Homes for Sonoma was born. This organization is composed of designers, architects, marketers, and community leaders who took a time of tragedy and turned it into an opportunity for a larger conversation about building, living, and working more densely.
After the fires, I advocated for our Northern California Chapter to throw all its philanthropic support toward this effort—and for all our City Centers to contribute to the pool, as well. The Board agreed, and IIDA Northern California donated its entire philanthropic funds for 2017, the largest donation in the chapter’s history, to Homes for Sonoma to further the design thinking strategies they had identified to help revitalize suburban Northern California. The North Bay City Center also donated to the organization, and various other monies were pooled for a total of $43,140 from our design community.
Less than a year later, Homes for Sonoma completed its first modular units and began to move survivors into new long-term housing for below-market rents. The organization continues to address this problem, actively looking for more land and also pursuing less traditional approaches like helping private homeowners establish accessory dwelling units on their property.
IIDA NC Instagram- Homes for Sonoma
Within the design community, we have also continued our efforts to learn, explore, and offer real solutions. To continue the conversation about how we rebuild our community, the North Bay City Center focused its 2018 Spring Forum on the topic of “Revisioning suburbia and challenging our notion of density and scale.”
Of course, the need to respond to disasters never stops for long. In 2018, an even more devastating set of wildfires hit California, and in 2020 we, like the rest of the world, are dealing with the many impacts of the coronavirus. All varieties of commercial interiors have been greatly affected, and Sonoma County, which has historically been slow to embrace new technologies or remote working, has had a meteoric shift.
This is an amazing time for a greater strategic conversation about what our public spaces can be and how they might function better for the benefit of all. There’s a clear benefit to having design professionals—especially commercial interior designers—provide strategic input to cities, businesses, and leading organizations, as we are trained to bring insights into human behavior and experience and we have deep knowledge about materials, sustainability, and health and wellness to bring to every space we consider. Problem-solving is a design exercise, and when it comes to disaster response, we’ve demonstrated—as we did in the aftermath of the Tubbs Fire—that we can bring unique insights and create valuable long-term solutions.
Heather Mackin, IIDA, is the owner of Mackin Creative and the former director of IIDA’s North Bay City Center
