Now you are wondering: "but how do we do this?"
We source the right products by reading all the labels, by asking the good questions to the manufacturers (who very often are not at ease with answering these sort of questions), we take note on where we found the right product and we research and research over and over again... and we use a lot of common sense as well.
Of course it is not easy to start a do a project which is going to be 100% "green". But I am confident that with all the new products appearing on the market, the task is going to become easier soon.
The first thing to do is using a 0 VOC (volatile organic compound) paint, which is becoming easier and easier as the manufacturers now propose more low or 0 VOCs products. Use your sense: if you can smell something, it means that there is something that might not be so good for you! And this is true not only for paint.
To check what a piece of furniture, flooring etc contain it is useful to ask for the MSDS, Material Safety Datasheet, which shows what the product is made of, and what is not written on the label. I must admit that to obtain these sheets is sometimes quite hard as the manufacturers don’t understand at first, why you are interested in such a paper, or are not really willing to pass them on to you. A lovely eco-friendly designer I met at a BIID conference, told me she was also facing the same difficulties and the only way to get the necessary information was by being "thick-skinned". I think she is so right! Surely the more people will ask for the MSDS, the easier it’ll be to get them.
Emmanuelle Lemoine
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