Metropolis: Design For Wellness

Choic­es in sus­tain­able con­tract-grade wall­cov­er­ings just became more plen­ti­ful, with Wolf-Gor­don rolling out its first com­mer­cial-grade PVC-free option. Made from an olefin com­pos­ite, the new col­lec­tion, Clair, is not only ecofriend­ly (it’s devoid of plas­ti­ciz­ers, heavy met­als, halo­genat­ed fire retar­dants, and phtha­lates) but also free of con­flict min­er­als, whose min­ing, pro­duc­tion, and ship­ping are believed to facil­i­tate con­flict overseas.

Made in the Unit­ed States, the col­lec­tion fea­tures ten nature-inspired pat­terns print­ed using water-based inks left over from the company’s pre­vi­ous pro­duc­tion runs. ​“In the old days, the inks would’ve been mixed for one run and then thrown out,” says Mary­beth Shaw, the company’s chief cre­ative offi­cer for design and marketing.

Although Clair was devel­oped for high-traf­ic, com­mer­cial set­tings such as health-care facil­i­ties, good looks were not sac­ri­ficed for dura­bil­i­ty. ​“We’ve want­ed a PVC-free prod­uct for years,” Shaw says, explain­ing that 11 years ago, Wolf-Gor­don intro­duced a prod­uct that was biodegrad­able but couldn’t with­stand the wear and tear of com­mer­cial envi­ron­ments. By com­par­i­son, Clair’s bleach-clean­able sur­faces are made from non – Red List, Health­i­er Hos­pi­tals Ini­tia­tive – com­pli­ant ingre­di­ents that are dis­closed in a Health Prod­uct Dec­la­ra­tion (HPD). The collection’s warm pat­terns mim­ic the tex­tures of organ­ic mate­ri­als includ­ing wood, silk, and burlap. ​“In the end, aes­thet­ics are anoth­er impor­tant ele­ment,” Shaw says.

After all, visu­al­ly appeal­ing design only helps ensure that the sus­tain­able option gets spec­i­fied. —Kel­ly Beamon