Sustainable?

I am going to take a look back at a product at the London Design Festival. A product so interesting that I knew I had to do a separate post on it. So let me set the scene.

I was walking around the design fair assessing the work of every designer there, and then all of a sudden a slight smell hit me. At first, I couldn't make it out. Was it food? perfume? a cleaning product? As I approached the scent grew. I could finally make it out. Fish! Intrigued, I approached a stall with what looked like a big ball of hair in front of it.

The Big Ball of Hair

As I got talking to the founder, Sander Nevejans, he told me that I was mistaken, it wasn't hair. It was mussel beards. Yes, you hear me right MUSSEL BEARDS! For those of you that are very confused don't worry I was too. This guy was using these things as the material of choice for his product:

Mussel Beards

As a man who loves a bowl of mussels more than probably anything else in the world, I was intrigued. We got talking and after a bit of a discussion about their collection methods manufacturing and material properties, I was told that he was using these to make acoustic panels and insulation.

Sander and his Beards

At the time I thought that this was great. What a smart sustainable solution to better the environment. Great! Brilliant! I shook Sander's hand and wished him the best of luck. However, the more I thought about the idea the more I questioned it. Let's talk about his designs first.

Mussel Beard Acoustic Panels

From what Sander told me the target market for their panels is "businesses that have sustainability or environmental goals. They are mainly used in company offices". If I was a company looking to purchase these I would want them to look like the material they are made of. This would reinforce to employees that the company is taking an active stance on climate change. These acoustic panels look like every other one on the market. If I was Sander I would have taken inspiration from the current trend of using bamboo in products for both their physical and environmental properties.

The common trend with these products is that they all resemble one another. This makes a product made of bamboo almost always instantly recognisable. Sander's panels are blue. If I found a blue mussel beard at a restaurant I would complain.

I think Sander was trying to implement what I was saying into his insulation design:

Mussel Beard Insulation

This was the first thing I noticed when I approached his stall. Immediately I asked myself, "What is that thing?". This question opened up the dialogue between me and Sander. The design was a conversation starter. It was the best thing he could have put at the front of his stall. If he had put his insulation panels at the front I would have walked right past. There should have been similarities drawn from the insulation and implemented into the design thinking for the acoustic panels.

There is also the small issue of the fish smell. While it was subtle, it was still present. This must be solved before any further design iterations take place.

I would not want to be smelling that during my 9-5

In terms of the material itself, Sander showed me the data for its material properties and I was very impressed. It outperformed the industry-leading acoustic panel for sound absorption. Its environmental properties are also very impressive. It is a waste material that in most instances gets sent to landfill. Again that's Great! Brilliant! However, no matter how sustainable it is, it is a limited resource. There will only ever be a set number of mussel beards in the world. Sander also struggled to convince me that it was easy to preserve. Mussel beards tend to rot in a few days unless dried and treated.

So we know that the product is environmentally sustainable but is the idea sustainable? I would argue that it isn't.