Atelier V&A Recognised as a Trailblazer in the Sustainability in Action Awards 2026
At Atelier V&A, sustainability has never been about ticking a box.
For us, it starts with looking at what already exists and asking a simple question:
Can we save this before we replace it?
That philosophy has become an increasingly important part of the way we design, restore and work with our clients, so we are incredibly proud to have been recognised as a Trailblazer in the Sustainability in Action Awards 2026.
The Sustainability in Action Awards recognise businesses putting sustainability into practice through how they operate, use resources and support people. The Trailblazer category specifically celebrates brands finding creative and resourceful ways to make sustainability work within the realities of their business. Sustainability in Action Awards
For us, the recognition feels particularly meaningful because our approach did not begin with a formal sustainability programme.
It began with furniture.
What if we didn’t replace it?
Working in interiors, replacement can often be the easiest answer.
A chair feels dated. A table is damaged. An existing piece no longer suits the direction of a room. It is relatively simple to source something new, quote it and move on.
But over time we found ourselves stopping before that point.
We would look at an old piece and notice its proportions, its timber, the workmanship beneath a tired finish or simply the fact that it had already lived alongside its owner for years.
Instead of asking, “What should we replace this with?”, we started asking:
“What could this become?”
That thinking sits behind our approach to restoration and our Relove work — taking existing, vintage or unwanted pieces and exploring whether they can be repaired, restored, reupholstered or completely reimagined.
Sometimes the transformation is dramatic. Sometimes it simply means respecting what was already there.
Either way, the intention is the same: to extend the life of something worth keeping.
Sustainability is also about preserving skill
The more restoration work we have undertaken, the more we have realised that sustainability is not only about the object.
It is also about the people behind it.
A piece moving through restoration may pass through the hands of carpenters, upholsterers, finishers, painters and other craftspeople, each bringing knowledge accumulated over years — sometimes decades.
Those skills matter.
If we stop repairing furniture, we gradually stop needing the people who know how to repair it.
And once that knowledge disappears, it is extraordinarily difficult to replace.
For Atelier V&A, supporting craftsmanship is therefore an important part of the sustainability conversation.
We may conceive the idea and design the transformation, but the makers and craftspeople are the people who make it possible.
The slower option
Restoration is not always the easy route.
It takes time to understand a piece, determine what can be retained and work through the appropriate repair or redesign.
It also takes the right piece and, importantly, the right client.
Part of our role is helping clients look at an existing object differently and understand that value does not necessarily disappear because something is old, worn or unfashionable.
That education takes time.
And we are realistic: not everything should be saved.
There are times when something is structurally unsound, when repairing it is disproportionate or when replacing it genuinely makes more sense.
For us, sustainability is not about preserving everything.
It is about asking before replacing.
Changing the conversation
That is also why we do not believe our progress should simply be measured by how many pieces we can restore in a year.
Restoration is naturally slower.
What matters just as much is changing the first conversation we have with our clients.
When someone begins to ask:
“Can we save this?”
before:
“What should we buy instead?”
something has shifted.
And that shift can continue long after a particular project is finished.
The Sustainability in Action Awards themselves were created around the belief that sustainability should feel practical and achievable for businesses of different sizes, rather than something reserved for large companies with large budgets. The judging considers action and impact, resourcefulness, collaboration and the potential for a sustainability journey to influence others. Sustainability in Action Awards
That makes being recognised as a Trailblazer particularly special to us.
We certainly do not believe we have every answer.
We are still learning, questioning and looking more closely at how we source, make, restore and design.
But we know one thing:
good design does not always have to begin with something new.
What comes next
The Sustainability in Action Awards form part of Christmas Together 2026, Singapore's Christmas Village with Heart, taking place from 26–29 November at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Hall F. Sustainable Markets SG
We will be there as part of the Sustainability in Action story, sharing more about our approach and one very special restoration project.
More on that soon.
For now, we are incredibly grateful for the recognition — and even more excited about the conversations it allows us to continue.
Before replacing something, ask what might still be possible.
Aisha & Venetia
