Responsible Specifying Toolkit

Welcome to our new and improved hub for green skills to support the sustainability journey for our industry

Interior designers can help their clients make more environmentally and socially responsible choices, while demonstrating that sustainability need not come at the expense of beautiful design.  As the professional body for interior designers, the BIID believes this responsibility is fundamental to the profession, which is why promoting sustainable, ethical and inclusive design is one of our four strategic aims.

• 42% of the UK’s entire carbon footprint is controlled or influenced by the built environment (source)
• 62% of the UK’s total waste can be attributed to the construction sector (source).
• Globally the construction industry contributes to 50% of all climate change, 40% of drinking water pollution, 23% of air pollution and 50% of landfill (source). 

Whilst the wider public does not always see interior design as part of the construction sector, the choices interior designers guide their clients on very much contribute to this overall statistic. Interior designers have a vital role to play in creating a more sustainable future.

This toolkit is intended to provide designers with an overview of sustainability issues associated with specifying products, materials and technologies. We hope it can contribute towards interior designers feeling empowered to collaborate with their clients on making each project more sustainable. It is a living, open source guide written by our members, for our industry.

The toolkit includes an overview of supply chain and lifecycle considerations rather than a list of specific products or suppliers.  We have also provided a series of useful questions that can be used in conversations with your own suppliers and project implementation teams, to encourage them to offer or facilitate lower impact solutions.

The goal of this toolkit is to encourage the industry as a whole to review its impact and where possible make improvements. This can be achieved by learning and sharing knowledge of:

• Where products and materials come from and how they are made
• What impact they have on their immediate and wider environment and communities
• The lifecycle of products and materials.

This toolkit represents an evolution of our Sustainable Specifying Guide, first published in 2021. We reviewed, revised and updated that content to create the toolkit. We have structured this toolkit so it covers material types and considerations when specifying, as well as providing inspiring case studies which show the theory in practice.    

Each of these issues map to the Design Council’s Skills for Planet Blueprint which is a wider practical framework outlining core green skills that designers need to support sustainable and environmentally responsible design practices.  In their research the Design Council found designers across the whole design industry very much wanted to design for planet but that many felt that a skills gap prevented them from achieving this.

Our vision is that ‘green design’ becomes so interwoven into design practice that it simply becomes part of what we mean by ‘good design.

 Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer, Design Council

This guide is broken down into four sections: 

1. Materials: An overview of what to consider when specifying various different materials on a project.
2. Considerations: Key concepts such as circular economy, energy, regenerative design, social impact, traceability, water and animal welfar.
3. Case Studies: case studies of domestic and commercial interior design projects showcasing how working designers integrate sustainability into real life spaces.
4. Resources: a list of useful guides, websites and resources.

We hope you find the guidance helpful. 

Special thanks

The BIID would like to thank Chloe Bullock for spearheading the revision of the original Sustainable Specifying Guide and the following contributors: Helen Gordon, Alison Scheurer-Dewar, Susanne Conway, Jo Chrobak, Jo Ahmedzai, Clare Winspear, Pia Pelkonen, Natasha Gupta, Liz Bell.

Version Updated: September 2026