08/2025: Good Intentions Vs. Reality

Image © Jose 2025

I can’t say I truly know the United States. I haven’t spent time in the deep South, haven’t driven through small-town Midwest, haven’t seen the Pacific Northwest beyond its cities. I’ve only lived in Chicago and Boston, and just visiting a handful of places doesn’t mean I understand the full reality of the country.

Same with China. I haven’t been to Beijing, haven’t explored Chongqing or Shenzhen, haven’t seen the rural provinces that shape so much of the country. My experience? Guangzhou for the Canton Fair, a few trips to Shanghai, some stops in Macau. That barely scratches the surface of a country operating on a whole different scale

But I did visit China for several years, just like many others in pursuit of manufacturing partners in different industries and product segments, from coffee machines to bath hardware, and like many others I went through a flurry of emotions and mindsets, and I ended up nurturing a deep sense of respect for the Chinese people. While it is true I saw the underbelly of the manufacturing beast, I love factories and I understand manufacturing stages and what happens when you have millions of people that will do anything to jump out of poverty, not defending, merely stating facts. Through almost 30 years of in and out of China, I have met dozens of westerners that were there invariably to buy or to set up manufacturing/ attend to existing manufacturing facilities, and we talked in airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants and clubs. It was always striking that the whole strategy for the west was always reducing costs, and I was part of that approach with my industry partners, you would hand product to a local manufacturer and ask if that could be done cheaper, much, much cheaper, and in many cases not really care how the manufacturers achieved the desired cost, at what cost to their own environment, working conditions, or even what was really in the products, materials, finishes, a certain willful ignorance portrayed by a See no Evil/ Hear no Evil/ Speak no Evil approach that has gotten us to the state of consumerism we are in today, and also to the state of mistrust and general uneasiness about product made in China. But I saw some of the most intricate, well-made, crafted, beautiful products made in China, at prices that were not the ones the wholesalers and resellers were looking for. I am not trying to exonerate the Chinese, nor blame the West for everything, but we should all reflect about the utopia and dystopia of our approach and relationship with China. This extensive paragraph is just to say that I too am distrustful of the quality of products made in China, but at least I don’t blame them entirely for it.

Add to this the concern I have about sustainability, the fact that we cannot continue to deplete resources at the rate we have been, while pretending that innovation alone will magically offset the damage (resources exist, we just need to go and get it…). The reality is, we’ve designed a system that rewards speed and cost reduction over longevity and responsibility. We take, we consume, we discard—convincing ourselves that a recycling bin or a carbon offset somewhere down the supply chain is enough to balance the equation. But it’s not.

When you are doing a house renovation, this whole issue come to the forefront of decision making. You might start with some intentions around products and services connected to what you are doing, but if you add the pressure of a limited budget and a deadline, soon enough you will find yourself betraying all your ideals, or perhaps just assuming that they are just that, ideals. In this renovation, just a few places where we were forced to rethink our ideals:

• Those dumpsters and bags that a third party diligently picks up every so often, where is all the trash that is being generated by the renovation going, what kind of separation is taking place, where does it end?
• This category of products (sanitary, hardware, windows, plumbing, electrical, lighting, ventilation, … ), are there local or North American manufacturers that might have a better overall quality and reduce the transportation carbon footprint (without hitting budget and deadline)?
• That insulation you are spraying between the walls, the stuff the contractor said you could not do with sustainable/ natural based materials (the excuses range from “that’s what everyone else is doing”, to code requirements, lack of expertise using it, lack of ready to ship material, …), is it really what you were aiming for?

In a renovation where you are doing things yourself, maybe, maybe you have the resilience, the time and the sheer stamina to find the right solution for everything you need, in a case where you are working with a master contractor who hires different contractors to do different jobs the way they are used to doing, this becomes a frustratingly endless exercise of back & forth, with us many times giving in. Or maybe we are just excusing ourselves for not doing a proper job, we are not doing this renovation to ‘flip’ this house, we really want to live in it, healthy and as long as we can, and I wonder if the system is rigged or if we are not strong enough to fight the system. Does this resonate with you? I’m in that stage of the project as you see… critical of decisions we make every day, knowing things will turn out good in the end.