The aesthetics tend to come first no matter the environmental cost in countless sectors due to the important role the visual plays. Sustainability and fair trade come with a lot of restrictions and obstacles, especially in the context of retail design/interior architecture which includes everything from the building materials to the items being sold. If we design aesthetically but sustainable while keeping in mind that we are designing for our existing society -and not designing a product that is at the other end of the scale of our existing society, it will become a more natural part of the society and not something imposed or forced upon us.
The green mentality is harmfull, because companies larger than your dreams take advantage of the fact that it has become a trend. The cotton may be organic, but that doesn’t mean the amount of water used isn’t as bad as in production of regular cotton. Bamboo may be renewable and some argue that it therefore is sustainable. The production of bamboo is usually not clean. Sustainability needs to follow through from the raw material to production to labor to economy. The only segment choosing not to enlighten you about what a complex process it is might have some holes in their facts. However, this article is not intended to push lifestyles to an extreme. There’s a lot of materials and products available on the market that are made of recycled materials etc., which at least makes it less bad. Another subject to consider is the lifespan of a material/product. You might recognize the “quality over quantity”-line.
Header photo: Capital Magazine, issue 21
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