Eco-Friendly products

Having gone to two trade shows in two and half weeks that had to do with interior design products I was impressed that there is much more emphasis placed on eco-friendly products, procedures and projects.

Products

I spoke with a wallcovering manufacturer who told me that the way they have addressed the issue is by letting the buyers return the unused product for recycling. The manufacturer will recycle the wallcovering rather than having it put in the trash.

There are new eco-friendly foams for bedding and pillows also. Low voc paints that we can use in our homes and businesses.

Most of us now know of eco-friendly flooring products such as bamboo and cork.

There is a conference on Green + Design in Atlanta on October 1-2 with 4 distinct areas of design; Commercial, Hospitality, Retail and Residential. There will be seminars directed at each of these distinct areas as well as product exhibits. To learn more about this conference and expo you can visit http://www.greendesignexpo.com/.

Practices

Not only are there products available to the consumer that are eco-friendly, there are aslo practices that businesses can put in place that are environmentally friendly. For example, restaurants can opt to put practices into place such as sorting recyclables from garbage and composting food waste. They can choose products wrapped in non-bleached papers and they can pressure suppliers to use packaging that is less harmful to the environment. They can also put symbols next to the items on their menus that are eco-friendly like vegetarian items.

Retail showrooms can use more effecient lighting and bulbs, and again eco friendly packaging.

Commercial offices can use light harvesting techniques, purchase furniture that is eco-friendly with little or no off-gasing, and cooling with water features.

Consumers can help by placing an emphasis on frequenting establishments that make a consious effort to go-green.

Projects

I attended a seminar at the HD Boutique trade show in South Beach titled Radical Design. There were two finalists that had created innovative hotel design projects and were trying to win a $5,000 prize for their ideas. The runners up were Carly Cannell and Linda Wallack of Weetu Corp, a new company that was formed just 1 month prior to the contest. These two women came up with the idea to radically redesign exhisting road-side motels/hotels of the 50's and 60's with a decidedly retro themed brand called the MoMotel. Their intent was to remodel existing motels rather than tear them down completely. They would reconfigure the floorplans to offer 3 different sizes, create an experience for budget concious travelers and use eco-friendly products. You can learn more about their concept by visiting www.goweetu.com.