The WELL Building Standard is the first of its kind to focus on the health and wellness of building occupants. It’s a dynamic rating system between design and construction with evidence-based health and wellness interventions. It’s a holistic design approach addressing seven concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. Within these concepts are 100 “features” intended to address specific aspects of occupant health, comfort, and knowledge. To model these concepts and features, I will be using my Spring 2022 interior design studio project to exemplify the importance and benefits of the WELL Building Standard in workplace design.

Video link: "The Last Fire Sprite." For my Thesis Project, I wrote, directed and produced a 25-minute long animatic for my series “The Last Fire Sprite.” This animatic is to be used as a pilot for the show to pitch it to studios. It includes an all-star crew of 14 voice actors, 2 artists, a vocalist, and a composer. While most of the work was completed by myself, the project as a whole would not be as quality without the hard work of this amazing crew. The pitch: A young Fire Sprite named Blaise awakens in the future to find her world completely changed. Magic is scarce and sold to the highest bidder. A twisted oligarchy holds the last living witch hostage in order to remain in power. Blaise bands together with Axel, a young street rat, in order to evade countless bounty hunters after the price on her head. Only together can they free the last witch and bring magic back into their world. Please enjoy “The Last Fire Sprite: Welcome to the Future Part 1”! 

New Leaf was founded with the mission to address the environmental, health, and sustainability consequences of paper production today. We explored the sourcing and foundations of paper needs, supporting our assumption that paper can be created from agricultural waste. We solidified a business plan using agricultural waste after considerable sourcing research and expert and consumer input. We determined that forest foliage, a potential fire hazard, could be sourced from national forests and used to make alternative paper as well as contribute to sustainability efforts.

New Leaf was founded with the mission to address the environmental, health, and sustainability consequences of paper production today. We explored the sourcing and foundations of paper needs, supporting our assumption that paper can be created from agricultural waste. We solidified a business plan using agricultural waste after considerable sourcing research and expert and consumerism input. We determined that using forest foliage that is a potential fire hazard from a national forest could be used as a source to make alternative paper as well as contribute to sustainability efforts.

This paper examines how marketing has been used as a tool to promote awareness among consumers about environmental issues and to encourage them to make sustainable choices. Marketing campaigns have been instrumental in the widespread adoption of sustainable practices such as recycling, second-hand shopping, and reducing personal waste. As consumers become more conscious of their choices, companies use green marketing to capitalize on these social trends. While many companies do have the intent to sell a truly sustainable product to fulfill customer needs, others simply use the label to profit, without putting forth a sustainable product. This practice is referred to as “greenwashing.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has put forth regulatory guidelines to combat this issue, but does not seem to have the necessary resources to penalize companies who do not follow the regulations. In fact, there are many guidelines that are optional for companies to follow, but not mandatory, making it difficult to spot false claims. We conducted two surveys of over 300 college students to assess their perceptions of sustainability and how it influences their everyday choices. We asked questions about perceived sustainability of various brands, some of which with known sustainability campaigns, and others without. We found that many students hold similar perceptions of sustainability and saw interesting trends in how sustainability affects their day-to-day purchase habits.