EcoHOUZE on ethical, sustainable products for the home

Can you tell us more about the ethical sourcing process, and where the materials come from?

We ensure that our products are ethical by being fully aware of where it comes from, how it’s made and most importantly, who it affects along the way.

For example, the ecoHOUZE Seagrass Collection is made in Vietnam. We ensure that the materials are sourced ethically from local farms mainly from the Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa provinces. The raw materials are then processed and transported to be individually handwoven by the skilled workers in Nam Dinh province. This provides them a source of income during the tough times of the pandemic. The sales from this collection also contribute to the local women’s union to support the creation of stable jobs for workers, especially for women in difficult circumstances and who are in the poorer rural areas.

What are some of your personal favourites from the ecoHOUZE line?

Personally I love the Seagrass Tray, the Hyacinth Woven Basket With Handles and the Seagrass Laundry Basket With the Lid! The Seagrass Tray comes in 3 sizes which is perfect for organising your knick-knacks. I like to use them on an open shelf to keep my essentials organised and easily accessible.

What do you think lies ahead for sustainable design as a whole?

With an increasing trend of consumers embracing the sustainable lifestyle, we foresee that there’ll be a need to educate consumers so that they understand and appreciate what sustainable products entail. The price of sustainable products and lack of knowledge may deter consumers from fully understanding and embracing the sustainable lifestyle.

For example, prices for sustainable items may be higher than mass-market items due to a longer production time and more effort required. For instance, our seagrass collection is harvested only biannually, and the other processes take time too, such as hand-drying the seagrass and hand-weaving it into the products. By comparison, mass-market items are often cheaper since they are produced at scale and require a much shorter period of time – even though they may not be the best for the environment. We hope that there’ll be increased appreciation for effort taken to make thoughtfully-made sustainable products.

While producing sustainable design is not an easy journey, we understand the impact it has on the environment, and we know small actions can have a big impact down the road.

For more information, visit www.houze.com.sg.

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