As most of us know, Antiques tell the story of our past. The antiques trade is in a special position to share the story and impart the message that antiques are, by their very nature, green.
Antiques: As Green as it Gets
(Image of a Windsor chair)
Taken from Antiquesaregreen.org founder Nigel Worboys, “By buying [an original Windsor chair] to use again we have conserved our natural resources and prevented the carbon footprint of another chair being produced, that possibly would come all the way from the Far East. I expect that a new mass produced chair will hit the waste tip long before the antique Windsor chair is sold again at auction, goes to the restorers to be revived and is retailed again for another 40 years use!”
Almost half of Brits are unaware antiques are green, according to a new poll.
The poll conducted by the Auction Technology Group found that 45% of respondents were totally unaware that buying a new piece of furniture produces a higher carbon footprint than buying second-hand. The findings came despite the fact that 82% of the people surveyed said they do consider sustainability in some way when making a purchase.
And in the US, “Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population but consume 24% of the world’s energy.”
(Image of a world map)
Vintage and antique items used to be built to last. Glassware and dining supplies, furnishings and decor, art, linens and textiles, jewelry and clothing …all hark to the days when things were made with pride.
Today the buzz word for the “throw-away culture” is planned obsolescence or making things that are designed to break down in a short period of time, sending you back to the cheap sources of fast furniture. Read more global initiatives here.
(Image of a classic car)
From John Fiske, the Editor of the New England Antiques Journal “Green self-indulgence – what could be a more attractive form of consumerism”
So when we buy and use these older items instead of buying new, we not only preserve and protect those precious resources, and draw on that higher quality, we also preserve and protect the history bound up in them — the provenance, the manufacturing histories, and the built to last perk found in them. And as Fiske says, “there is only one way to make the subconscious associate antiques with green, and that is to whisper it, not shout it, at every possible opportunity.”
SIte him here: http://fiskeandfreeman.com/antiquesaregreen.aspx
