Its been a busy start to 2024 at Studio ID, but we thought we’d take a little break to look ahead with some trends, predictions and thoughts for transport cabins in 2024:
#1 The rise of mono-materials
With end-of-life becoming ever more of a focus for sustainability efforts, complicated, compound materials are coming under scrutiny. Many suppliers are looking at creating their products using a single material, to allow much more simple separation for recycling once the product comes to the end of its in-service life.
The increase in these materials however could have a detrimental effect on weight - often the complicated composites were developed to offer significant weight saving and so the environmental effect of reducing landfill at the end of life has to be carefully weighed up against potential increased emissions fuel burn emissions.
#2 The varying levels of accreditation
With B-corp in the news today for perhaps not being quite the high standard it set out to be, there are many questions around accreditation of suppliers and other companies in the interior ecosystem. Having a measurable standard by which suppliers could be judged would be a golden ticket, but what most companies do varies so much that applying a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t be comparing apples with apples.
It’s something we’ve discussed a lot at the Green Cabin Alliance, could/should we offer to certify our members to create a kind of best practice directory for the sector, but due to the complexities of the industry and sustainability as a whole, the jury is out at the moment!
#3 Bye bye fossils
After speaking with many suppliers, there’s a real push to remove any fossil fuel derived materials from their products. Plastics are often blended or coated onto other, natural materials to give either better durability or better aesthetics and are really tough to replace, but many plant based alternatives are being investigated. This is a really exciting area of change, and it’ll be great to see 100% bio-based and natural material blends making it into the cabin.
At Studio ID, we’d like to go even further, and see a product with no fossil fuel use from cradle to gate - not only with no plastics within the material, but also not using any fossil fuel energy in its manufacture and transport - being truly fossil fuel free.
Its a tall order, but could we design a totally fossil-fuel-free seat?
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