Designer Campion Platt is best known for his focus on bringing luxury to contemporary interiors, for clients that have included celebrities such as Meg Ryan and Al Pacino. But recently, the champion of all things opulent has been talking eco-conscious design — and his belief that opting for luxury and being sustainable can work in tandem despite a pervasive misconception that they’re oxymorons. Many perceive going green as expensive; many think being luxurious is wasteful. In the edited transcript below, we talk to Platt about bringing both into sharper focus.
Q: You’re known for your luxurious interiors, but we gather being green is also near and dear to your heart. Are the two concepts compatible?
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A: Completely. The idea that luxury is wasteful may have been true in the past but doesn’t have to be. There’s a new austere sensibility about luxury rather than the former opulent view. What I see now is understated luxury. I did a lot of travel when I was younger and spent time in Asia where there’s a frugality about design and luxury — a quiet tasteful elegance where people do more with less. There’s a big difference in the design aesthetic of a Japanese palace versus Versailles. Twenty four years ago I became a Buddhist, which stresses being mindful rather than wasteful. I turn out lights when I leave a room; I’m concerned about how things are packaged since most aren’t biodegradable, or what happens to leftover food after a meal.
Q: Tell us about your more luxurious designs and how they’re green?
A: I’m trying to get people to understand that luxury isn’t about consumption and size but quality of life. Learn to consume less and experience more. Take more trips into nature, stop wasting paper, become a fanatic about good green stewardship. Everyone feels touched about resources no longer around.
Q: So many people think going green is time consuming and expensive. Do you agree?
A: No. More green companies offer all kinds of biodegradable products and so many other items that aren’t as expensive any more, such as LED light bulbs or Nest products that learn your habits to conserve energy when you’re not home. In the next few years, I expect to see more of these tools, many of which will work passively and silently in the background and be user friendly. Many will also help improve our health as the Apple watch is expected to do by encouraging users to live a better life. We planted an organic garden at our Long Island house for our children to teach them about farm-to-table practices, understand where food comes from, and how it needs to go into compost piles so nothing gets wasted.
Q: Can you share a few other green tactics that most people might not know about, which are also luxurious?
A: I’m a big fan of all natural, biodegradable hemp curtains made from the hemp plant and which cost less than many custom curtains. Bamboo comes from a woody grass and is widely available. I used to describe myself as “light” green since I didn’t do everything green. It’s become easier to be greener. I now find more building materials for the exterior that are green and luxurious than for interiors because there are more mandates about buildings having to be green. But that’s gradually changing. Every new US embassy has to have green interiors. It’s also not as expensive to do so as it used to be. I designed a line of eco-textiles for HBF Textiles that are green and affordable.
Q: Is it really so much more healthful to go green, a tag line marketers of green materials and appliances use as a hook?
A: In many cases yes, but consumers have to read labels to understand what they’re getting. Unfortunately, there’s not yet a unified approach, which is what we need, as well as more interest. It’s certainly a subject worth knowing about but a lot aren’t interested yet because it’s not in their face and they don’t have to. I advise everyone to make one change. Buy an EnergyStar appliance, then pay it forward by telling someone else to do so.
Q: Going local is a good green practice that can be luxurious, too, right?
A: Yes. I did a house in Costa Rica, and most everything was made there — metal from a local shop or one within a 500-mile radius to cut down on the carbon footprint. There’s more of an overall push now to buy local, and I ask my vendors where the water comes from to cool the metal or how they operate their mills to produce textiles. It’s still limited, but I think in four to five years green will be a standard for the design industry. If I can use choices that don’t off-gas or pollute and doing so doesn’t cost my clients more, I’m all for it. Price differences are becoming less of an issue; we also are consuming less. Start by looking locally. In Chicago, there’s Green Home Chicago Design Center. Google words like “green” and “local;” look up “energy saving,” “compost,” “greener life,” “green roofs.” It takes time but this isn’t a quick fix. Another way to do both is to use exterior green materials for indoors, which have long been made for greater durability and don’t have to be cleaned with toxic chemicals.
Q: What about convincing clients to go green — do some ask you to focus on green?
A: It depends. I started out by doing a house in 1985 in Michigan with a client who was very allergic and whose children had asthma and were affected by electrical fields. I insisted on a 100-percent air exchange system, correctly wired the house and avoided plywood and sheetrock with formaldehyde toxins.
Q: One of your suggestions is a smaller carbon footprint, so are clients who own huge homes willing to go smaller?
A: Yes in some cases. Downsizing is starting to happen first by people wanting much more open living spaces and with fewer passageways that connect them and consume space or real estate.
Q: How does the average consumer/homeowner really know how green some furnishings are or how much electricity they use without the industry-wide standards?
A: Again, read labels which in many cases spell out what the wood is made of and where it came from, the same for the foam, and if the springs on a sofa are plastic or metal. Again, the good news is that we’re greener than we were.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: I’m working on a furniture book since 80 percent of the furniture I use is custom. In the past we had furniture for particular purposes which no longer exist such as telephone tables. There’s less of a need to differentiate tables, but the problem users now have is how to visualize anything they want for their interiors, which designers help do. I think in the future people will use 3-D technology rather than today’s 2-D flat technology to see how choices look from all sides before they’re inserted in their landscape.
Barbara Ballinger is a freelance writer.
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