Eco Interior Designers – Beyond Bamboo

There is a growing trend in interior design, just as with almost every profession nowadays, for specialists in environmental issues within the sector. Before climate change became one of the hot topics in the media, there was an unfortunate stigma attached to environmental concerns, particularly in the professional environment, and to a certain extent, that is still the case.

However, although for many people, the phrase ‘eco interior designer’ will conjure up visions of bamboo and hemp, things have moved on somewhat. In tandem with the burgeoning green technology market, environmental interior design is now capable of being just as chic, sleek and modern looking as ‘normal’ (read: unconcerned with the environment) interior design.

Rather, eco interior designers are now worth their weight in gold, possessing as they do a wealth of knowledge about which materials will contribute most to lowering the carbon footprint of the property, both in their transport and in their contribution to energy efficiency, as well as of structural issues that will affect energy efficiency.

Eco interior designers will be concerned with both the carbon footprint of the project itself and the long term sustainability of the finished product. Given that new environmental legislation is being introduced all the time concerning property, although there is no obligation to take the environment into account when commencing a project at the moment, it is very likely that at some stage there will be certain environmental requirements that all properties must fulfil.

Making such changes to a property is much harder than implementing them from the start, so it is worth hiring an expert now if you are doing work on your house or commercial property to save you trouble and expense further down the line – aside from the obvious benefits of reducing your energy bills and doing your bit towards lowering our carbon output.

The vast increase in understanding of the environmental factors involved in interior design projects means that the result of hiring an eco interior designer will be just as stylish and sleek as any other good interior design project, but with the bonus of knowing that everything in the property is optimised for the lowest environmental impact.

This may come at more of a cost, both because the interior designer will have expertise not shared by all of their contemporaries, but also because the materials themselves (and possibly method of construction) may be more expensive. However, as many environmental experts are keen to point out, in the long term this will be recouped by lower energy bills. It may also save you doing more work to the property as more environmental legislation is brought in, so the question is, if you’re thinking of hiring an interior designer, why not hire an environmentally aware designer?