DISCUSSIONS WITH | 5 MINUTE READ

PHILLIP JEFFRIES & BOXX CREATIVE: THE NEXT STEPS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

As an award-winning interior design company, in association with Accouter Group of Companies, we are constantly looking for ways to develop our awareness and knowledge of sustainability within the industry. Understanding the increasingly important role in protecting the planet, has encouraged us to focus our efforts on introducing more sustainable measures in any way we can.

As part of the on-going research, Accouter’s Associate Design Director, Esra Kumbasar interviewed Jon Wilkins of Phillip Jeffries and Nicola Keenan Co-founder of Boxx Creative; live on Accouter’s Instagram. In the interview they covered the importance of sustainability, how within their businesses they ensure they are doing their part and answer the sustainability ‘trend’ dispute within the design industry. 

JON WILKINS PROFILE GLIMPSE

Jon Wilkins is the international Contracts Manager for Phillip Jeffries. His interest in design and sustainability started a long time ago. After travelling around the world Jon reinvigorated his love for nature, therefore, decided to work for a company that shares a similar ethos with both protecting and loving nature. 

Phillip Jeffries is a family business founded with just 10 grass cloths in a garage over 40 years ago. They have since emerged as one of the world's leaders in luxury wallcovering.

SUSTAINABILITY WITHIN THE INTERIOR DESIGN INDUSTRY

Jon Wilkins: 

“At Phillip Jeffries, we tend to approach it from the view of looking at the ecological, social side and the financial side of what sustainability needs to be. Right from the start, our history is natural, really beautiful materials. We want this company to last as long as possible. The only way to do that when natural products are really at your core of your business is to make sure that you have sustainable materials. We're very careful to make sure what we use is sustainable and materials in a lot our natural products, and really well ethically sourced. As a company, Phillip Jeffries are an ecological group, for example, we gave birth to the project ‘PJ plant’s, three years ago. I think the last number I saw was nearly 160,000 trees planted.

We partner with Arbour Day Foundation, they go into areas where there is peak deforestation, both manmade and natural as well. Part of their approach is, rebuilding the habitats for the people who live there and the animals. That's our ecological approach, relatively simplistic but making sure that what we take out is as sustainable as possible.”

CHALLENGES FOR DESIGNERS 

Nicola Keenan:

“I would say the word ‘sustainability’ is a trend, however, the concept of sustainability is not a trend. What I mean by that, is that I think sustainability has come from what we previously had; eco, environmentally friendly, green, these sort of buzz words. We're now talking about sustainability, and that's the sort of buzzword at the moment, but I believe sustainability is already moving on, and people are looking at how to go that stage further, for instance through restorative design and regenerative design. I think these are the words of the future. For us, sustainability is essentially about design that is good for people and good for the planet. This is good design, and this is what we believe is our responsibility as designers, and that doesn't change. Sustainability the word is a trend, but the concept is not.” 

To watch the full highly informative Q&A session click the here.

Accouter are investing in the future, and we will direct our efforts on measures that will deliver the biggest impacts, aiming to continuously review and improve the studio’s environmental performance with an emphasis on minimising any destructive environmental impact. Sustainability measures have already seen us achieve our ISO environmental accreditation 140001, and we are committed to working towards carbon neutrality.