Every design project that promises changes must, after all, establish an efficient communication with their public. And all sustainable projects should make clear their suggestion of transformation of the society. More than modeling forms and functions, designers create ideas and proposals, which their customers or end users perceive or not. Therefore, this new symbolic value given by design, here in this paper called sustainable value, should be seen as an opportunity to communicate an idea, a proposal of cultural and social change, which needs to be perceived, in terms of consumption. To verify how products of sustainable design communicate with their public, this dissertation presents a bibliographical research and a field research carried out among a group of thirty consumers of furniture and decorative objects, from three decoration stores of the city of Rio de Janeiro. A qualitative research, consisting of an in-depth interview, and a quantitative research, using the conjoint analysis technique, were applied to consumers, to assess the perception of the sustainable value in decorative pieces and verify its effectiveness as a transforming agent and changes facilitator.