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ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLNESS
16 Jet McQueen: “Can a
monster industry pivot
towards environmental
friendliness?” In the last nine months I have visited many a design show. I have been hunting
for a variety of reasons, but chief among them I’ve been looking for ways in
which I can see the industry shift towards more eco-friendly alternative sources
and materials.

I am disappointed to report that we are not
moving as fast as we need to on this. Yes,
there are plenty of recycled or upcycled
items. Plastics are being morphed into wall
surfacing treatments, Old clothing is being
recycled into carpets, Quarrying stones and
marble is being replaced by Porcelain tiles
and countertops, Natural fibres are beginning
to be sourced in more local areas. This all
sounds very good…except that when you
investigate the products there are several
drawbacks. Namely – Quality, Consistency,
Selection, Cost, and Credentials.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. The
fact is none of the products I viewed would
be considered “first choice” selections if I
were working on a design. They just aren’t
nice enough, good enough, eco-friendly
enough….and that really does matter. These
environmentally friendly materials might be
selected if a client briefed that all contents
in their design MUST be green. But in any
other brief, they would never make it into the
preferred source list. These substitutes just
don’t feel, look, or perform well enough to
hold their own next to the other non-GREEN
options. And that’s just not going to do it for the
clients who care enough about aesthetics
that they’ve hired an Interior Designer.

I have clients who are willing to spend more
on an environmentally positive item that
they love, but I am yet to meet a client who
stands by their desire to be Green with such
conviction that they are willing to select an
inferior material for the protection of the
environment. Recognizing this dilemma is
important! Until the industry accepts that
most people will not compromise their
desires for a principle, it won’t recognize
that it’s up to us to deliver an acceptable
alternative. As an industry we need to move as
quickly as possible to a point where the
Environmentally friendly products on the
market are as good as, or better than the
other options. It takes only one green vendor
to reach a point of preference, for all other
vendors to move to meet them. For every
preferred green product (in cost, quality, and
consistency) would eliminate the desire for
any non- environmental product completely
shifting the paradigm and the industry.

It was clear by walking through the Design
& Surface show in February, that suppliers
know that they need to be seen on an
environmentally friendly platform, and that
this is what clients (aka Designers) want to
see. Stall after stall, each vendor promoted
their Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose platform,
and it was evident that we have reached the
Marketing phase of “GREEN”. The front of
each mat highlighted products presented as
planet-happy revolutionising solutions.

This extended from carpets through to
cleaning solutions, sustainable sourcing
of organic materials like marble, through
to organic paints and recycled and sorted
demolition techniques and machinery which
is changing the way old buildings are sorted
between rubbish and recyclable items.

If you looked at the shell of this event, the
result feels like a positive step-change
towards a happy planet and responsible
industry…. But below the surface the reality
is a little murkier. If we magnify into the
details, what we are really being confronted
with is a front-facing promotion of a singular
product “star” that has some redeeming
level of GREEN credentials. This NEW star is
being represented to increase the supplier’s
credibility as a green source provider.

Looking deeper at the supplier’s product line,
90% of the remaining products these vendors
sell are not green, and their sales teams are
quick to move you onto these products. This
directly correlates with the volume of sales
they generate when you ask about “best
sellers”. And so,… we are back to the catch
22, where until the environmentally friendly,
and carbon neutral products improve,
clients won’t switch. When clients don’t buy,
the suppliers invest less on the expansion
of the range and the green offer remains
underdeveloped and uncompetitive against
the mainstream offer.

There are some innovative things coming
forward to be excited about, and I was
particularly encouraged by the number of
vendors trying to work through solutions for
recycled plastics. Although I am yet to be fully
convinced by the look of recycled plastics for
rugs, throws and blankets, I was impressed
by the softness that can be achieved by
processing these recyclable materials. We use
fabrics in so many items in our homes and
lives that this could be a real game changer