At the Fall High Point Market, the Sustainable Furnishings Council will be announcing a major trade and consumer print campaign featuring a host of famous interior and product designers to increase awareness and purchase interest in eco friendly home furnishings. A public press conference and round table discussion with several of the participating designers on Monday, 10/19 at 9:30 am on the 11th Floor of IHFC Green Wing, Ballroom B.
The campaign centers on a new DESIGNINGreen Leadership Team of prominent interior and product designers committed to promoting more sustainable practices throughout the industry. The launch group includes legendary fashion designer Alexander Julian with a line for Vaughan-Bassett; Thom Filicia of the Style network’s “Dress My Nest” with a line for Vanguard; Vladimir Kagan, award-winning product designer with designs for American Leather; Angelo Surmelis of HGTV’s “Rate My Space” with his angelo:HOME line for Handy Living; and leading brand icon Kathy Ireland with an upholstery line for Omnia Leather among many others. Julian, Filicia and Kagan will all be part of the round table discussion of their efforts and announcing the campaign on Monday.
All DESIGNINGreen Leaders are currently associated with product lines that offer legitimately sustainable products. They have also participated in comprehensive training sessions to learn more about sustainability issues, and have agreed to allow the use of their names and images to help bring awareness to the subject at all levels. Individual executions feature the designer with a personal profile and a statement about how the concern for green influences each of them. The full-page ads will appear in major consumer shelter books such as Architectural Digest, Veranda, Traditional Home and Country Living and trade publications beginning late this year.
The campaign is intended to provoke greater activation at the retail level in generating a greater supply of sustainable products and stronger demand by consumers. According to a recent national consumer study commissioned by SFC and World Market Center in Las Vegas, nearly 80% of consumers express at least some interest in green home furnishings provided that they like the style and cost about the same as other options. This translates to a likely trial rate of over 40%. However, actual purchasing to date has been limited due a perceived lack of awareness and availability of green furnishings options. The Sustainable Furnishings Council intends to change that starting immediately.
“Consumers are ready, willing and able to buy green furnishings,” says Jeff Hiller, SFC President, “They are buying green in virtually every other category, but our industry has been slower to respond. We are now ready to go straight to the consumer, with the huge help of our DESIGNINGreen team. They have been unbelievable…sincerely committed, generous with their time, truly exceptional in every way.”
This is the first concerted effort to reach consumers directly by the SFC, the #1 organization in green furnishings. The organization’s first order of business was to draft consensus standards for the industry in 2008, then to build up members among raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and interior designers. The SFC is now approaching 400 members, pacing at a rate of nearly a new member a day, and recently added three button features on their web site home page to “Find a Green Manufacturer…Retailer…Designer.”
For more information, contact Susan Inglis at susan@sustainablefurnishings.org or 919.967.1137.