With Jo Knight, Independent Sustainability and Marketing Consultant and Co-Founder of The Sustainable Design Collective

Comfort isn’t just what we see or hear - it’s what we feel.

In an age of smart systems, sensory data and wellness-driven design, touch remains the most overlooked sense in the built environment. Yet it’s one of the most powerful.

From the texture of materials to the warmth of a surface underfoot, touch shapes our memories, emotions and sense of connection to place. It affects not only how comfortable we feel, but how deeply we engage with the spaces around us.

In this episode, we are joined by Jo Knight, independent sustainability and marketing consultant and Co-Founder of The Sustainable Design Collective.

Jo brings over 30 years of experience in the furniture and design sector, championing sustainable, circular and human-centred approaches to interiors. Her work explores how material choice, sensory awareness and empathy in design can transform workplaces into environments that truly support people and the planet.

This episode includes:

• The Power of Touch – why this most fundamental of senses is often ignored in design, and how tactile experience influences comfort, connection, and memory.
• The Haptic Environment – understanding how materials, textures and surfaces shape our sensory wellbeing.
• Sustainability Meets Sensation – why designing for comfort must go hand-in-hand with designing for environmental responsibility.
• Designing with a Light Touch – how reuse, adaptability, and empathy can create spaces that both feel good and do good.

Explore and watch more episodes at Flooring Matters | Shaw Contract EMEA

Season 1: The Comfort Zone — produced in conjunction with Workplace Insight

Explore and watch more episodes at Flooring Matters I Shaw Contract EMEA

Season 1: The Comfort Zone produced in conjunction with Workplace Insight