Why Material Intelligence Matters at NeoCon and Chicago Design Week 2026 with Jon Strassner and Kenn Busch
As Chicago Design Week 2026 approaches, the conversation around commercial interiors is expanding beyond product launches and showroom trends at NeoCon and Design Days to focus more deeply on the materials that shape our built environments.
In this episode of I Hear Design, host Robert Nieminen welcomes back Kenn Busch of Material Intelligence and welcomes Jon Strassner, founder of ReWritten and host of Once Upon a Planet, for a timely discussion about materiality, sustainability storytelling, and circular design. Together, they preview what attendees can expect from Destination NeoCon and the ReWritten pop-up, while unpacking why designers, specifiers, and manufacturers need to ask better questions about what products are made of, where they come from, how they perform, and what happens at the end of their useful life.
The conversation explores embodied carbon, material transparency, supply chain accountability, certifications, circularity, remanufacturing, reuse, product take-back programs, and the challenge of making sustainability feel accessible rather than overwhelming. Busch and Strassner also explain why storytelling may be one of the most powerful tools the design industry has to move sustainable material choices from niche conversations into the mainstream.
Meet Our Guests
Jon Strassner, Podcast Host and Sustainability Consultant
Old enough to remember black and white TVs with 3 channels and no remote control, Jon Strassner is a climate activist. Jon is committed to changing our industry from beauty first to planet first, where we care less about making the cover of a magazine and more about making a difference. Jon is a podcaster. As cofounder of the podcast, Break Some Dishes, Jon has commentated on climate impact since 2020 and produced almost 100 episodes of his first podcast, Break Some Dishes. Jon has just started season one of his new podcast, Once Upon a Planet, where he talks climate with ordinary people, preferring to leave the experts and their data out of the storytelling experience. Data informs, storytelling transforms.
Because companies aren’t people, and they don’t always do the right thing, Jon works with them to better understand their impact on the planet, measuring what they do right and setting goals to be better. Jon works with companies to be more transparent about what goes into their product and be more aware of the planetary impact of their business model. While it may sound fancy, it’s really about being better, restoring, repairing and reimagining. Infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is bad mathing.
Jon is an Impact Icon 2022 award winner and a dedicated founding member of Next Wave Plastics, a LEED Accredited Professional and writer. You can find Jon’s writing on his Substack, Why Am I So Hot?, where he writes about everything from product certifications to growing up in rural West Virginia.
Kenn Busch, Founder, Material Intelligence
Madison-based Kenn Busch is a journalist and the founder of Material Intelligence, a sustainability subject matter expert, and the founder of ClimatePositiveNOW.org. He is dedicated to bridging the knowledge gap between materials and sustainability for furniture and interior architecture. He has created and delivered dozens of certified CEUs for architects, designers, and design students and has organized and spoken at industry conferences in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. He has also curated material education exhibits at trade shows like SICAM in Italy, NeoCon in Chicago, and KBIS in Las Vegas.
Since 1990 he has edited and published several magazines in the furniture and materials markets, reaching readers in North America, Europe, and Asia. Bringing an international perspective to regional design challenges has become one of his trademarks, along with introducing materials suppliers to innovative ideas from other materials categories.
For more than a dozen years, Kenn has been creating materials-focused Certified Education Unit articles (CEUs) and presentations for practicing architects and interior designers. Through this experience, Kenn realized that every specifier needs more than just information; they must have opportunities to experience the wide variety of materials available to them.
His curated events provide A&D specifiers with an educational, experiential space to explore and experience materials on their own terms. Over a period of nine years, the Materials Pavilion installation at NeoCon in Chicago, produced in partnership with Interiors and Sources magazine, became the busiest exhibit at the fair. In 2025, the hands-on experience evolved again to provide a Climate Positive Solutions Gallery for Commercial Design attendees.
“I love this place,” said one commercial designer, “because I can get three days of work done in 45 minutes!”
In mid-2016 Kenn began working closely with design educators and students to find more effective ways to reach the next generation of interior designers, creating content and presentations geared to their specific needs. The fruits of this effort inspired the updated website you’re visiting right now, and inspired the launch of Climate Positive NOW, an educational messaging project informed by years of research into the sustainability of architectural materials. Climate Positive NOW promotes building materials that go beyond achieving net-zero carbon emissions by sequestering more carbon than was released in their manufacture and use. Wood-based “Climate Positive” materials benefit the environment by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as no other building material produced at scale can.
“Learning to connect with young designers is key to the future of smart design and the responsible use and preservation of our resources,” says Busch. “Not only are these students the next generation of materials specifiers; they represent the next generation of consumers.”
Key Moments in This Episode
00:00 — Why Chicago Design Week Is Bigger Than NeoCon
Robert sets up the episode by explaining how the second week of June has expanded beyond NeoCon to include Design Days, Fulton Market and Chicago Design Week—making the city a broader hub for commercial design conversations.
03:54 — Meet Jon Strassner
Jon Strassner introduces his background in manufacturing, sustainability consulting, ASID and climate storytelling, including his new podcast, Once Upon a Planet.
06:19 — Why Materiality Deserves Attention Now
Jon explains why materiality is becoming more urgent as embodied carbon, supply chain transparency and product toxicity become central issues for designers and manufacturers.
09:08 — Materials as Part of a Larger System
Kenn Busch expands the conversation by framing materials through systems thinking, managed forestry, carbon impacts and the interconnected consequences of extraction and specification.
12:42 — Moving Beyond “Is It Recycled?”
Kenn reflects on how sustainability conversations have evolved from simple recycled-content questions to deeper considerations around performance, sourcing, longevity, societal impact and storytelling.
15:52 — Why Sustainability Storytelling Often Fails
Jon argues that the industry often loses decision-makers by relying too heavily on acronyms, data and certification jargon rather than creating a meaningful personal connection.
19:54 — What “Material Intelligence” Really Means
Kenn defines material intelligence as practical, actionable knowledge and explains why simplifying material information is essential if designers are going to specify more confidently and sustainably.
25:56 — Inside Destination NeoCon
Kenn describes Destination NeoCon as a hands-on “petting zoo” of material options where attendees can touch, compare and ask detailed questions about performance, VOCs, cleanability and applications.
29:49 — ReWritten Returns as a Circularity Pop-Up
Jon previews the ReWritten installation’s return to NeoCon as a smaller pop-up within Destination NeoCon, focused on circularity, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing and resilience.
32:25 — Circularity Without Perfectionism
Jon challenges the idea that companies must be perfect before participating in circular design, encouraging the industry to “try to be better” through steps like disassembly, repairability, take-back programs and smarter materials.
37:32 — Rethinking the Afterlife of Products
Jon discusses what the design industry often avoids: what happens to furniture and materials after use. He explains why remanufactured, refurbished and rescued products need a stronger story to overcome the perception that “used is icky.”
43:47 — The Real-World Barriers to Reuse
Jon acknowledges the logistical challenges designers face when trying to use repurposed or remanufactured products at scale, especially when clients expect consistency across large projects.
45:01 — Questions Designers Should Ask Manufacturers
Kenn and Jon outline better questions for NeoCon attendees to ask suppliers, including what products are made of, how supply chains are managed, whether manufacturers understand their bill of materials and how sustainability is embedded into the company’s story.
53:36 — Moving Beyond Check-the-Box Sustainability
Kenn and Jon close by urging designers and specifiers to take ownership as stakeholders in material progress, reward transparency and participate actively rather than relying only on certifications or labels.
About the Author
Robert Nieminen
Market Content Director
Market Content Director, Architectural Products, BUILDINGS, and interiors+sources
Robert Nieminen is the Market Content Director of three leading B2B publications serving the commercial architecture and design industries: Architectural Products, BUILDINGS, and interiors+sources. With a career rooted in editorial excellence and a passion for storytelling, Robert oversees a diverse content portfolio that spans award-winning feature articles, strategic podcast programming, and digital media initiatives aimed at empowering design professionals, facility managers, and commercial building stakeholders.
He is the host of the I Hear Design podcast and curates the Smart Buildings Technology Report, bringing thought leadership to the forefront of innovation in built environments. Robert leads editorial and creative direction for multiple industry award programs—including the Elev8 Design Awards and Product Innovation Awards—and is a recognized voice in sustainability, smart technology integration, and forward-thinking design.
Robert's work has earned him industry-wide recognition throughout his career, including:
- ASBPE Award (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015)—Best Regularly-Contributed Column; retrofit
- TABPI Award (2017, 2016)—Top 25 Entries, Cover Story; Retail Environments
- WPA Maggie Award (2011, 2010, 2008)—Best Publication, Trade; interiors+sources
- FOLIO: Eddie Gold Award (2022, 2007)—Best Feature Article & Special Section; interiors+sources
- Contributing author of ASID’s 2020 Outlook and State of Interior Design report, as well as The State of the Interior Design Profession (Fairchild Books, 2010), which earned a place on the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers’ “50 Must Read, Must Have” book list.