The BMA is creating a ripple with its #GetLavvySavvy campaign to encourage consumers to be more water-waste aware.

Tim Reynolds explains the reasoning behind the most recent campaign:

When we look to the future of product design everyone can agree on one thing, eco-aware consumers are demanding change. At the Bathroom Manufacturers Association, we know many of our members are delivering comprehensive portfolios of products to satisfy the need for energy and water-efficient bathrooms.  But with variable rates of replacement in the market, we must recognise engineering and smart technology alone will not deliver the net-zero world of tomorrow. We have a responsibility to address existing bathrooms and educate the public about other ways to save energy and water.

The scale of the problem nationally is significant, with around 5% of homes estimated to have water running down the pan in their WC, but the slight ripple in the water goes unnoticed and undetected in most homes.

To change the way we think about our loos, the #GetLavvySavvy campaign is showing people what to look out for. We are also encouraging yearly checks of seals and diaphragms. These are basic maintenance behaviours that should be common practice to ensure toilets perform perfectly and avoid leakage.

Of course, most of the toilets classed as problematic are no longer on the market and in time, home upgrades will help to stamp out the issue. But if we are serious about sustainability, we need to accept we have a part to play in solving the legacy matters in the nation’s homes.

The campaign has had the added benefit of providing a platform for the sector to speak with one voice, with key figures in the water, retail and installation sectors sharing the message.

Greening the nation’s homes is demanding a herculean effort and it is important to look for design solutions, but it would be remiss to focus exclusively on this. To find out more about the campaign visit www.GetLavvySavvy.co.uk

3,358 hotels join the drive to champion sustainable practices as environmental consciousness amongst travellers increases.

Expedia Group, the global travel platform and Accor, a leading hospitality group, in conjunction with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), are joining forces to further extend the UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge. This strategic tripartite agreement will see 3,358 global Accor hotels join together to promote environmental sustainability and sustainable tourism worldwide. 

The UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge promotes responsible practices, community resilience and heritage conservation, with the ultimate goal of changing the nature and impact of global tourism. Under The Pledge, parties commit to supporting the reduction and elimination of single-use plastics and promoting local economy and culture. 

The Pledge launched in October 2019 with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, UNESCO and Expedia Group. 

Accor’s hotels join over 500 hotels in Thailand that have signed The Pledge since the Thai microsite was established in 2020.

Markus Keller, SVP Sales & Distribution from Accor said, “We have a responsibility to offer sustainable and tangible solutions to our guests to reduce the impact the hospitality sector has on the environment. Accor and all of the hotels in its network have long-standing commitments in this area, for our decision to remove all single-use plastic items from guest experience in our hotels by 2022. We want to accelerate our efforts, which is why we are today joining the UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge in partnership with Expedia Group. 

“Our ambition is to continue to drive the change towards positive hospitality wherever we are. Joining The Pledge with 3,358 of our hotels is a continuation of our group’s sustainable development program “ Planet 21 – Acting Here” which sets concrete and quantitative objectives relating to local sourcing, diversity and water, energy and waste management. Planet 21 was launched in 2011 and is based around four strategic priorities: work with our employees, involve our guests, innovate with our partners and work with local communities; two key issues are tackling food and building sustainability. We look forward to working with our partners on this new Pledge.” 

Hotels can be examples of outstanding green practices and forces for positive change in the community. All it takes is to start with a few simple commitments.

“The UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge aims to turn words into action and is a testimony of our growing commitment to collaborating closely with the hospitality sector in order to enhance environmental and sustainable tourism consciousness and practices across the world. Everyone needs to play their part in promoting sustainable tourism and helping preserve travel destinations. This partnership with Accor is about taking needed steps at a global scale to minimize waste in the tourism sector,” said Zuhairah Washington, Senior Vice President, Strategic Accounts, Expedia Group.

UNESCO also announces today that the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has provided 2 million euros in support for UNESCO to help expand the Pledge across seven countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia and Vietnam). The programme will help UNESCO’s work to make tourism emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis and encourage sustainable development in the sector.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay commented, “The collective effort is all the more crucial as the pandemic has hit the tourism and culture sectors hard. We hope that the efforts of Germany, Accor and Expedia, will encourage other major players in the sector to join us and invest to offer more responsible tourism.”

In this interview, supplied by ISH Digital, Lawyer Jens J. Wischmann, Managing Director of the Association of the German Sanitary Industry (VDS) and joint founder of the trend platform Pop up my Bathroom, sets out the three most important trends in bathroom design. Wischman also discusses the coming surge in renovation for private bathrooms, and what he hopes ISH digital 2021 will bring. 

ID: How do you view the current economic situation in the sanitary industry?

Jens J. Wischmann: For self-evident reasons, the home is now the focal point of our lives. Even if living and where we live formed a major topic before the pandemic, now it has gained in importance again: people are investing in their homes, renovating them, working at do-it-yourself, creating a fine living space. The bathroom is becoming an increasing object of attraction. More and more, it is seen as a fully recreational room – with all associated expectations by way of aesthetic design and convenient fittings and furnishings.

ID: You use Pop up my Bathroom at ISH to pick on the relevant bathroom trends. So has a lot happened over the last two years?

Jens J. Wischmann: Of course we want to reflect current trends in style and to promote new developments, but our priority aim has always been to identify and spotlight longer-term developments early on. And yes, a lot has happened over the last two years. These are exciting times and sanitary businesses need to respond to social changes and general conditions – for instance in the form of new products and concepts. Through Pop up my Bathroom we are attempting to launch incentives and to shift the focus onto major developments in the bathroom. In this process a number of trends are intertwined. One result of this, for instance, is the private spa – a major trend, which we analysed, designated and communicated twelve years ago at ISH 2009. 

ID: In Pop up my Bathroom how do you estimate current trends, and what messages do you have for the industry and for the general public?

Jens J. Wischmann: At the moment we are seeing three dominant bathroom trends and two trend drivers. .Green Bathroom, .Smart Bathroom and .Living Bathroom – they determine the design and equipment of the bathroom of the future, because in the first place consumers want to invest in an environmentally-aware way, secondly smart technology is setting new standards in hygiene, convenience and the nature of the bathroom experience, and thirdly people have higher quality expectations which a bathroom must fulfil as a place to spend time in and higher expectations of its potential uses, as a relaxing private spa and healthcare zone.

ID: At the last ISH the trend forum Pop up my Bathroom attempted to win the industry over to the rising topic of a more daring coloration – and was very successful in doing so. What motto have you taken as your prime statement this year?

Jens J. Wischmann: We are taking up a development which is attractive both to the trade and to consumers – especially to clients who want renovation. Actually this development is not new, but rather in the last few years it has been working unobtrusively in the background and is now having a major impact on the layout of bathrooms and on product design: Increasingly, “front of wall” products are undergoing a symbiosis with “rear of wall” products – we call it “inside | outside.” Using this motto we shall also be showcasing the three bathroom trends at ISH digital 2021. For this subject is not only becoming more and more important for the development of the industry, but it also shows how closely design and trade businesses, lifestyle and technology go hand in hand.   

ID:What motivation do apartment or house owners have in renovating their bathrooms?

Jens J. Wischmann: Builders’ clients who for nearly 20 years have scarcely invested any capital in their own bathrooms are benefiting now from the enormous technological development in sanitary products which has taken place over the last few years. In such a renovation process these properties will therefore not only come to participate in the modern standard of a lifestyle-based bathroom architecture; they will also be able to enjoy innovative bathroom products – such as shower WCs, or a spacious, floor-level shower. The concrete added value which this work brings can certainly contribute to an increase in the property’s value. 

ID: The VDS is calling for a new approach to severely outmoded bathrooms on the part of the decision-makers, housing associations and landlords. What do you mean by that?

Jens J. Wischmann: In rented properties bathroom renovations frequently cover only what is absolutely necessary. Often the landlords are put off by the capital-investment costs or potential loss of rents. Yet a bathroom renovation represents financial input to the maintenance of a property’s value like no other modernisation measure.

But it is not just in private bathrooms that renovation would need to come. Parents of schoolchildren will be glad to see that the VDS is also calling for the modernisation of toilets in educational institutions.

Jens J. Wischmann: Going to the toilet, and then washing your hands, is a basic human need, which we in our highly developed industrial country must also recognise. Some of the conditions in German schools, kindergartens and universities are dreadful. A change of course on the part of those responsible is absolutely necessary.

What is your assessment of the coming ISH digital 2021?

Jens J. Wischmann: Digital formats cannot replace physical experience in the long run. After a year or more, with no actual exhibitor presence at trade fairs, we can see that already. I think it is important, despite the pandemic, to stick to this year’s fair date – after all, ISH is not only a national event; it is a leading international trade fair. Here, for more than 60 years, a whole industry meets to do business, to provide mutual inspiration, to fix benchmarks, and to supply further training. A trade fair’s digital platform will certainly not be able to reproduce completely all functions, but in the history of ISH we shall be quite definitely experiencing the evolutionary launch of a new generation of trade fair. Both Messe Frankfurt and the industry will benefit from this experience, and over the next few years ISH will undergo a transformation, becoming an innovative hybrid leading international trade fair: wholly to the advantage of visitors and exhibitors.    

Are you satisfied with the level of registrations by your partners from the bathroom-experience world for ISH digital 2021?

Jens J. Wischmann: No, there could certainly be more. Some market players will not be there, unfortunately. Even if the economic situation for many German sanitary brands is positive due to an increased demand in the home market, a commitment as an exhibitor to ISH digital 2021 is linked with numerous benefits.

Moreover ISH digital 2021 is a clear investment in confirming ISH as a leading international trade fair. German sanitary brands benefit from the location and the reputation of ISH over the whole world. Without ISH as a shop window, many German companies would not be where they are now: ISH as a trade fair, and a presence there even if it is “only” being held digitally, is thus also an expression of the leading role performed by a whole industry. But I can also understand that individual reasons are involved in rejecting attendance. Shortly however we shall be seeing that the level of registrations is increasing from day to day – the opportunity to visit at short notice is definitely one of the advantages of the digital format.

Clive Docwra, managing director of property and construction consultancy McBains, said:

“We recognise the Chancellor’s hands were tied by the extent of the COVID crisis, but – unless there is anything in the small print of the Red Book – there was little specific announced for the construction sector given that the government has made ‘build back better’ its mantra for recovery.

“The ‘super deduction’ in tax may encourage construction firms to invest, while the reintroduction of 95% mortgages, and extending their availability beyond first time buyers, could trigger a revival of the housebuilding sector.

“But we’re disappointed that it appears green retrofit schemes, such as the Green Homes Grant, were not renewed, as such programmes not only help contribute to carbon net-zero targets, but provide a lifeline to many construction firms in terms of maintenance contracts.  On a macro-level, we’d have also liked to have seen a bigger commitment to wider green initiatives to help encourage the industry to move towards net-zero.

“And while the Chancellor may have introduced a fast-track visa scheme for high-skilled workers in the tech sector, we’d have welcomed similar applying to the construction industry, because a combination of Brexit and Covid has led to an exodus of high-skilled construction workers from the EU and elsewhere.  The doubling of payments to employers for taking on trainees may encourage more firms to take on replacements, however.”