Today, the design industry is complex. Key ingredients used to be attention to detail, market analysis and strong technical knowledge. However, ethics and building consensus increasingly surface as more important design skills.

You could call this a marriage of the minds. John Stephens is the Vice President of Marketing for Shaw Contract. Shannan Billings is the Senior Director of Global Sourcing for Shaw Industries, the parent company to Shaw Contract. He’s a former history major. She can’t get through a meeting without using the word “molecule” more than a dozen times. They share a belief system, an employer and their home. Is this a house united? Here’s what happens when they sit down to talk.

In the world of design, sustainability can take many forms. It can involve a renewable material. It can mandate buildings that respect the geography of a place. It can come from architecture that favours local materials and building types. Or it can encompass all of the above, as the work of the three design professionals profiled here illustrates so eloquently.

Today, the design industry is complex. Key ingredients used to be attention to detail, market analysis and strong technical knowledge. However, ethics and building consensus increasingly surface as more important design skills.