Market: Green Design
Photo: Zweitsinn
Even in such a “green” country as Germany, the organic furniture of past decades remained a niche market usually characterised by dowdy design or idealistic recycling concepts. In future, however, the segment is set to become a lucrative branch of the furniture industry. Now that the debate about sustainable behaviour and economic activity is well underway and high-tech is joining forces with fresh, top-quality design to revamp the “eco” idea, the colour green is coming back into fashion with a vengeance. The concepts range from an original chest constructed out of recycled drawers and furniture consisting of recovered paper all the way to sensual feel-good furniture made of old wood. The retail sector is on its toes too, adopting new business models to ensure it is perfectly poised to make the most of this future market.
In the food industry, the organic mindset has long since become the norm. Years before the advent of analogue cheese, consumers started paying scrupulous attention to the ingredients used and demanding natural products. And even if the scrapping incentive is being sold as a flash of ecological inspiration, the trend amongst car buyers has been moving towards lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions – and thus towards ecological compatibility – for a long time now.
However, whereas the food industry introduced binding quality seals long ago ...
Authors: Claudia Wanninger und Lars Mörs
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Topics:
- Title: Riding the green wave to sales growth
- Introduction
- Concepts between pragmatism and idealism
- Economic aspects of ecological furniture
- Creative concepts from the flea market and design lab
- Certified naturalness: Examples at the imm cologne 2009
- Consumers are giving “organic” concepts credit –with good returns