Sustainable Design Collective Awards

The inaugural Sustainable Design Collective Forum took place this week. It was an opportunity for manufacturers and the A&D community to discuss the joint challenges that we face in delivering more sustainable fit outs and look for shared pathways to change. I only wish I’d been there to deliver my industry defining contribution but a dodgy back kept me at home. Boo to the ageing body but Bravo to Joanna Knight and Harsha Kotak for putting the whole day together so brilliantly.

The measure of the success of any event such as this may well be fairly bleak. If the UK doesn’t hit its Paris commitments then we’ve all failed and the recycled plastic chair we’re sitting on won’t make us feel any cooler. Unless it’s been design by the Barber Osgerby. In which case, we’ll feel super cool. Let’s keep our voices heard inside the industry and outside on the streets.

It was great to see one of our incubator partners take the award for innovation. Recoup use 95% salvaged, restored & repurposed materials to create unique, authentic commercial interiors that do good for the planet and the people around us. They work with charities to offer paid work placements for those in need, providing opportunities that encourage wellbeing, skill-development & inclusion. These opportunities range from sessions in their workshop, where they teach basic joinery & furniture restoration techniques, through to days on site, working alongside our team to install our furniture. If you’re not familiar with our Incubator Programme click here.

What I’ve learned from both the SDC and Recoup is that it’s all about telling stories, learning from the past and shaping the future. Let’s keep innovating.

Workplace Design Show 2023

I really enjoyed my day at the Workplace Design Show but ultimately left frustrated. My primary motive was to listen to as many of the talks as possible with the area dedicated to discussions around sustainability being a particular draw. That was a great idea. But why were none of the 120 speakers from furniture manufacturers or pure furniture providers (excluding TFP who ‘Curated’ the discussions)? If we’re serious about making real change then everyone involved needs to be included in the conversation. I’m as interested in the many challenges that manufacturers face as I am about those of the specifiers. It’s a furniture show, let’s hear Pedrali’s head of R&D discuss how to make sustainable office design a tangible achievement with the wonderful Deepak (MCM) and Georgia (Element Four). Sure the manufacturers have their platform in the exhibition but their salespeople are on the stands trying to turn their significant investment into a future return whilst the engineers and designers are back at base trying to deal with scope 3 emissions! Here I go, ranting again. And another thing, do you remember 100% Design on the King’s Road, those were the days….

The New Paradigm: A Designer’s Quest for Material Reuse & Upcycling

I’ve been speaking to Daniel Svahn, an interior and product designer, thinker and author of The New Paradigm: A Designer’s Quest for Material Reuse & Upcycling. 

One of the concerns I often hear is that upcycling has a limited capacity and can only be populated by designer makers making one off pieces. Our industry demands scalability so I was delighted to hear that this is exactly the area in which Daniel is working and that there is  clear support from the Swedish government and other experts within our shared expertise.

In his Masters project he worked with the vast amount of materials being made available through the fit out of both public and private commercial buildings.

‘There is a lot of material being wasted in vain within our field when it comes to used, old or broken furniture and interior products. However, things are now slowly happening, as more actors think holistically, sustainable, and circular. More needs to be done thought and the future role of the furniture/product designer and interior architect needs to be updated and evolved in some respects, I think. The industry, in Sweden, is slowly changing, through a handful of leading companies, but they often lack the creative and aesthetic sense in problem solving when it comes to taking even further steps in this and that’s where the likes of us designers come in. We all need to work more together. Designers, architects, the industry, clients, consumers, and people in general to shift to a more circular way of thinking in most of our dealings in life.”

Svahn goes on to reference leading Swedish companies and initiatives involved in upcycling and reconditioning used or “old” office furniture and sees it as a field that is be growing rapidly with the increasing demand for sustainable alternatives.

White Architects, one of the largest architectural firms with multiple offices around Sweden, are the creators of the reuse-themed Selma Centre in Gothenburg. In addition, contributing to the creation of CC Build, Centre for Circular Building and Construction1 , they are big enough to be advocates for change and thus have the muscles to so. In close collaboration and interplay with the municipality, their Selma Centre project, developed a positive change in legislation and guidelines for how reuse and upcycling may be used in the public sector.

Malmö Upcycling Service (M.U.S) Seeing industrial waste as a material resource for new products that can be sold locally, M.U.S was founded in 2019 by MFA Industrial Designers Anna Gudmundsdottir (1987) and Emilia Borgvall (1990). With their work and collaborations, they aim to rethink design processes and to question the designer’s role and democratic production methods. The concept of using recycled material as a base for small scale production is key and generates highly personal and unique products.

One of the main initiatives is the collaborative hub that is 100Gruppen, the 100 Group, a government funded initiative consisting of a mixed group of devoted companies, organisations, and stakeholders within the field of interior design. The members range from interior architects and architecture firms, through manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, to property developers, renovation companies and even government institutions. They all share the same common goal: to reach 100% circular and sustainable interiors by developing new business models and tools for it.

Svahn concludes that “the main opportunities lie in the positive effects on our climate and the economy, with potential and emerging new economic systems that may generate businesses and profit with less stress on nature in the long run. Whether we deal with pure upcycling, recycling, and material reuse, or in designing new and smart products adapted to a circular system, there are great opportunities for designers. I believe this is the future of sustainable product design and development and a new way of thinking. A new way of designing. A new paradigm.”

Daniel and I are working on a seminar for any of you interested in joining our conversation, let me know.

Sustainability Stifled By Accreditation

The more people I speak to regarding environmental accreditations the less confidence I have in their ability to deliver real change. The exorbitant cost to manufacturers, large and particularly small, to have their products tested can mean that those making the greatest sustainable impact are excluded from a project. The Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) vision is one that we can all share but when chain of custody is breached at the point of transfer of ownership from a third party to a customer then does it count? I know of a company that makes amazing wooden furniture of the highest quality and with genuine sustainability at the core of their business that isn’t FSC certified. Rather they adhere to the wonderfully dull sounding EU regulation 995/2010 (EU Timber Regulation), which prohibits the placing of illegally harvested timber and timber products (illegal logging) on the European market. But if the project wants FSC then all are missing out.

Rather, wouldn’t it be great if project teams set their vision and goals in line with the company’s cultural ambitions? Communicate these with staff, partners and suppliers and give all of them the confidence to use their expertise to deliver the objectives. Benchmark and evaluate; discover and interrogate, the facts will emerge and the team can discuss their impact.

Last week we missed out on a FX Award for which we were shortlisted. Salt & Pegram and Will + Partners’ furniture strategy for The British Red Cross was the only finalist not to have produced a product. We produced an idea. I think we need to be more bold and let the idea be the champion and free it from stifling accreditation.