Author Archives: Elaine Butler

There’s an unspoken agreement to pretend that everything is going swimmingly on social media, but we’re not feeling very positive going into 2024. There’s a discernible slow down in Ireland’s progression towards the circular economy. Last year there was so much activity with glimmers of hope for real change on the ground. That’s all dissipatedContinue reading “Newsletter November & December 2023”

(Originally printed in the magazine Furniture News) How can the upholstery sector take a more circular approach to manufacturing? In this article, based on researched gathered for a project examining opportunities for circular upholstery textile use in Ireland for the Irish Wood and Interiors Network, The Circular Design Institute’s Elaine Butler looks at the developments taking place in aContinue reading “Sustainable Upholstery Furniture – A Circular Approach”

Welcome to Autumn. Here’s what’s been happening since our last newsletter. Recently the EU finalized a ground-breaking law to combat greenwashing, Empowering Consumers Directive, that will prohibit the use of certain terms on product labels, including “carbon-neutral,” “climate-neutral,” “eco-friendly,” and “green”. Also generic environmental claims will be banned unless companies can provide quality supporting evidence,Continue reading “Newsletter September & October 2023”

Anyone else get burnt to a crisp or flooded out of it this summer? Earlier in July on LinkedIn I shared an article with the title ‘this year we’re going to get a taste of what life beyond 1.5 degrees is like’, and boy was it spot on! Thanks to El Nino we’re seeing theContinue reading “Newsletter July & August 2023”

We’re no longer talking about sustainability. We’ve now moved on to regeneration. We need to repair the ecosystems we depend on to give ourselves the best chance for continued survival, not simply sustain a damaging status quo. It may just sound like a case of semantics, and there’s no doubt the word ‘sustainability’ will persistContinue reading “Newsletter June 2023”

The astute among you will notice there was no newsletter in April. I decided not to publish one because there just wasn’t enough quality information to share. It can be tempting to give in to the pressure to be constantly visible, but this just adds to the deluge of mediocre content that bombards us onContinue reading “Newsletter May 2023”

When I started in design a long time ago, my goals were financial success and gaining esteem from my peers. Both are very nice to have, but they’re no longer my principal objectives. Now I want to produce work that will have a positive impact on the lives of future generations. This has led meContinue reading “How to Spot Greenwashing Projects”

Click on this link to read the full article on Circular Economy Opportunities, which was originally published in the Building Services Engineering magazine in November 2022. Elaine

Despite the latest IPCC report declaring it’s now or never to stop a climate catastrophe, some companies are still engaging in petty shenanigans. In an effort to reduce E-waste the EU brought in a law requiring all electronic devices sold in the EU to have a universal charge port. Seems sensible? Yes? Despite this eminentlyContinue reading “Newsletter March 23”

Has anyone else noticed the raft of sustainability jobs on LinkedIN? 2923, as of this morning! As tighter emission target and ESG reporting legislation starts to bite companies are starting to realise that they need to start taking their environmental impact seriously. This is a trend that’s only going to get stronger and EU legislationContinue reading “Newsletter Feb 2023”