Every year, the Salone del Mobile gets bigger and more interesting in my opinion. This year it was even more international than in previous years. Brazil held events in a number of locations around Milan. As did Portugal, Denmark, Belgium and other countries.

I tried to visit as many showrooms, exhibits and collections as I could between work appointments but as always time was more limited than I might have liked. A large number of the designers used either environmentally friendly materials or recycled objects.

Wine and products related to wine were not far from my mind at the Salone. I happened upon something of interest that
Amorim, the world’s largest producer of cork is doing. They just launched a new line of objects made of cork under the brand name Materia.

Cork is considered to be a positive influence on the environment both for its ability to be recycled and for the impact that cork forests have on CO2 levels in the enviroment.

I met with an interesting group of creative people who share a common workspace called The Hub. The values of the hub include sustainability and everyone who worked there was in someway working on environmentally friendly object, services or issues.

My contact runs a public relations agency that specializes in this fascinating niche. Others present worked on grills that run on hydrogen. The whole experience was quite fascinating for me and made me want to find the Hub in the United States. It hasn’t actually started on the East Coast yet. I am looking forward to its arrival on our shores.