You love to pour over design magazines, product catalogues, trade showrooms, retail stores and do internet searches for the perfect product for your design idea.
You attend to all the details of purchase, supply and install. Sometimes you agonize whether you have found the best solution to the design challenge. If this sounds like you, you may be a perfectionist!
During the 19 years I taught interior design courses at college, I noticed that perfectionism seemed to be the most common characteristic amongst the students. After all, it is attention to detail that makes us successful in our jobs.
In my opinion,
the perfectionism trait can also be a barrier to trying sustainable interior design. If the ‘perfect green’ product or design solution is not available yet, we tell ourselves that we will wait until it arrives on the market, or maybe we just ignore the entire issue and pretend it is not important now. We are only a small cog in the wheels of progress. Let future generations deal with the environment!
Just as perfectionism is a barrier to successfully completing a job on time, on budget, and with appropriate designer profit, so it can be a barrier to designing with sustainability in mind.
There is no perfectly ‘green’ product out there! There may never be one. Better and better products are emerging and will continue to do so as our manufacturers and suppliers design more environmentally friendly products and we support them with our purchases. We pick amongst the best features within the perimeters of our design: buy locally, buy quality, buy sustainability, buy organic (avoiding hazardous chemicals), buy recyclability, buy biodegradability, buy products with 3rd party certification.
Each one of these criteria matters to the environment and to our health. Each small step we take does make a difference. Feel good about each positive step you take. So do it now, why wait for spring? Spring is here now!
If you want help with making a difference in design sustainability, contact the office to arrange or attend the next seminar. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dayle welcomes your questions and comments below.
