Buy sustainably for your home
WANT TO BUY SUSTAINABLY FOR YOUR HOME? RACHEL LOOS REVEALS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW – AND PICKS THE BEST BUYS...
buying sustainable homeware was once a matter of substance over style. On the design margins, the earliest recycled products were often clunky and unsophisticated – flowerpots made from old tyres and glass that was thick and always a deep shade of green.
Today, however, sustainability has become a key driver of contemporary design with designers, manufacturers and retailers responding to an ever-increasing demand for products that take into account our impact on the planet. The result has been a huge growth in homeware that boasts environmental credentials but, crucially, looks good too.
But what makes a product sustainable? The definition is broad. For some, it begins with the way a company runs its business. The bricks and mortar headquarters of online boutique Rockett St George, for example, is powered by the world’s first green electricity company, Ecotricity, and milk is now delivered in glass bottles that are recycled. ‘It’s a small change but it has had a big impact on the amount of packaging we consume,’ says Lucy St George. Meanwhile, UK pottery company Denby has a water treatment plant enabling it to purify and return 28 million litres a year to the water cycle.
Bigger names are also showing their commitment. Ikea aims to produce enough renewable energy to cover its energy consumption and, by 2030, has a goal that all of its products will use renewable or recycled materials – and will be designed to be repurposed, repaired, reused, resold or recycled. ‘Sustainability should not be a luxury that few can afford or that people should have to choose between design, function, quality, low price or sustainability,’ says Hege Saebjørnsen, Ikea’s country sustainability manager UK & Ireland.
Underlining all of this is a simple aim: to choose products that break the model of being mass-produced at any cost. So, here’s what to look for...