Chloe Bullock Election Statement
Tell us about your professional skills and experience
I've been a designer for my whole professional life, loving design all through school, art college and university.
I graduated in Furniture and Product Design in 1993 - was a 'New Designers' award winner. From there my skills moved from furniture design to retail design as I was a designer for The Body Shop HQ for a decade - and hugely valuable experience which taught me about sustainable design and ethical business.
I started my own business - Materialise Interiors - which is 20 this year and became B Corp certified in 2023.
I was commissioned to write the book ‘Sustainable Interior Design’, for RIBA Publishing which was published last year.
I’ve studied Regenerative Design and am now Living Future Accredited. I’m a keen follower of human-centric, healthy design principles - I’m a Parson New School Healthy Materials Advocate and FitWel® Ambassador and have completed the ONE PLANET LIVING Action Plan and Associate training.
In 2017 I was the first interior designer in the UK to be VEGANDESIGN.ORG CERTIFIED™. Named as PETA’s 'Compassionate Designer' in their Vegan Homeware Awards.
I’m a co-founder of Interior Design Declares - the interior design industry's commitment in response to climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse. I’ve served a full term on the BIID (BIID) Sustainability Committee - where we have delivered a Sustainability Strategy, and the Sustainable Specification which is freely accessible to all. Most recently, I’m a co-founder of the International Vegan Interior Design Association (IVIDA)
I’m also a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures + Commerce.
Why are you standing for election to the BIID Council and what do you think you will bring to the role of the director?
I joined the BIID for two reasons: to continue my learning - and to meet other designers + collaborate. I never enjoyed the feeling we were competitors and have always felt we are an alliance in a complicated industry. I knew the BIID would be a nurturing group of designers - and that's really been my experience.
I have been a member since 2012. Initially I volunteered on assessing CPDs - which I still do and enjoy. I deeply respect our Institute and wanted to be involved more - so I asked to join the Professional Practice Committee and moved onto the inaugural Sustainability Committee as that evolved into its own committee.
It was a pleasure to share my learnings in creating the Sustainable Specification Guide with the committee. This guide is freely available and it's great to see it out there helping designers to work more consciously. Together, the committee formed the first Sustainability Strategy which went into the BIID Strategic Plan. I stepped down from the committee after serving a full term.
I would like to bring my experience in sustainability and ethical business into the Council as a director. I have no wish to be President at any point. I just want to continue to support the solid efforts on improving our industry that our professional body has spearheaded - leading the industry. I really would love to represent future generations, nature and animals on our Council.
What activity or initiative outlined in the 2024-2027 BIID Strategic Plan would you like to focus on if you are elected?
One of our three values is being ethically and environmentally responsible.
While I can spend time on that for my own micro business - I would love to have more impact supporting our institute and members with that journey.
I am very much part of the Sustainability community as well as our interior design one. I would like to help cross-pollinate with all that's out there to support the BIID and its members to lead the way. I hope we can look at all the negative impacts of our industry by improving practices and encouraging our supply chains to improve.
What do you see as the long-term strategic priorities of the BIID?
I really want to help reframe sustainability - and normalise it within the institute and our work. Showing the positive benefits to health, environment, and animals - to help shift the impact our industry has - and supporting a vital strategy of the BIID.
I love our industry and I want it to be accessible to anyone who wants to pursue a career within it. I am in admiration of the work the fellow committee on Diversity & Inclusion are doing and I'm immensely proud the Institute is pushing these two priorities.