The Reality of Sustainable Design Practices
(The Hartman Group, 2015)
A recent article published by the International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, reviewed the issue of environmentally sustainable interior design, commenting on the low frequency in which practicing interior designers actually make sustainable design choices. Hayles (2015) examined the strict constructs, which define sustainable materials and investigated the current supply and demand of green products, aiming to demonstrate the large gap between the importance of sustainable design practices and application of such design materials utilized by practicing interior designers. Hayles (2015) studied sustainable and green materials in five categories: fabrics, window treatments, surface material, flooring, and wall and ceiling construction. Each category was evaluated from multiple dimensions to determine what factors contributed to these products being labeled as sustainable or green products.
Hayles (2015) establishes that sustainable, green products are readily available through various retailers and could be easily sourced for various products however, also comments that there exists great difficulty in identifying which products were actually green and sustainable. There are various uncertainties in marketing and production of these green materials that make it extremely difficult to determine the validity of these sustainable products (Hayles, 2015). Researchers featured in this study were often forced to rely on multiple sources of materials as well as personal or professional knowledge to determine which product were reputable green products, manufactured in an environmentally conscious manner (Hayles, 2015). Understanding what truly constitutes green products and materials is a time consuming process, which may be too demanding for the busy schedules of many designers (Hayles, 2015). Overall, Hayles (2015) concluded, “there is a significant sustainability gap, as coined by Steig (2006), where a disparity exists between the principles of environmentally sustainable interior design and the reality of the practices.”
Interior designers’ knowledge and interest in environmentally sustainable interior design is constantly growing as the issue of sustainability itself is becoming more prominent in society. While the importance of these practices is becoming more pertinent, these ideologies are not necessarily translating into actions (Hayles, 2015). The discrepancy between theory and practice, referred to as the “the sustainability gap” is a major issue for currently practicing interior designers, and it is essential designers become more knowledgeable about green products and their applications in order to decrease the severity of this problem (Hayles, 2015).
My thoughts regarding the “Sustainability Gap”:
I found this article extremely interesting, and very eye opening to the reality of green materials actually sourced by interior designers. I believe as interior designers become more knowledgeable about green products and further understand the benefits of using sustainable resources, the use of these products will dramatically increase and this gap will begin to close. As an interior design student, I am already encouraged to understand the importance of sustainable practices and the value of applying this knowledge to my future practice. I enjoyed reading this article and found it helped to expose the reality of the current application of sustainable materials in the field of interior design. This article has inspired me to be more conscious in utilizing green materials in my future career as an interior designer and will prompt me to be more conscious of sustainable design practices used in projects I study.
References
Hayles, S. (2015). Environmentally sustainable interior design: a snapshot of current supply and demand for green, sustainable or Fair Trade products for interior design practice. International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, 4, 100-108.
The Hartman Group (Publisher). (2015). Sustainability 2013: when personal aspirations and behavior diverge [Online image]. Retrieved from http://www.hartman-group.com/hartbeat/480/the-sustainability-gap-widens-consumers-still-not-buying-into-sustainability-at-store-shelves