Sleep & Eat Event 2020
This years Sleep & Eat event moved online, yet maintained an impressive line up of speakers to discuss all things hospitality. Creative Director Lucy tuned in and found inspiration in those which centred around the environment and our impact on it; a topic with increasing urgency and at the forefront of our minds.
Lucy Goddard:
Cutting Through The Greenwash was an insightful delve into the industry that we operate in and a powerful reality check on how much Green Washing is actually going on, and how blind we are to much of it.
Greenwashing is term referring to the marketing of a sustainable practice often highly exaggerated compared to their actual their environmental impact, intended to mislead consumers who prefer to buy goods and services from environmentally conscious brands. Companies and brands claiming that their products are environmentally friendly or deliver sustainable practise when often it's a marketing exploit.
I recall the difficultly we had 7 years ago delivering the concept for the masterplanning of a large scale project in John O’Groats. We set ourselves the task of only using British manufactured good and where possible, locally sourced. It seemed like a relatively straight forward task with so many well thought of British designers and British made products, but in fact it incredibly challenging. Cost factors had driven many British designers to produce overseas, be it Portugal or the far East. Many items ‘made' in the UK were simply assembled here with the parts still being manufactured abroad and shipped or flown in. We had to go straight to source and ask a number of UK based companies to temporarily reinstate their UK workshops to create our products. We had to interrogate every part of the product from the wood source to the fabric manufacture. We had to question the dyes and inks used in production and we had to visit the factories to ensure good ethical practise. This was so rewarding but it was the consuming and it was expensive, something our fast pasted industry doesn’t always allow.
Back To Nature Is The Future was another truely inspiring talk – so much so that we have heeded the advice and purchased our own copy of Edward O. Wilson's book, Biophilia to learn more! In his response to nature and conservation ethics "Wilson argues that our natural affinity for life biophilia is the very essence of our humanity and binds us to all other living species”. So many of our design processes revert back to materiality and narrative but bio mimicry is something we are excited to explore more deeply.
If Lockdown has taught us anything it’s that we need and thrive in nature. Thanks to Sleep & Eat for making it able to experience such a diverse wealth of hospitality knowledge from the comfort of home. The environmental topics covered throughout the conference have been the highlight for me and a true wake up call to how we can navigate Greenwashing and take a stand to be more responsible in our design + procurement process.
Find more about this years line up here.