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At Green Design Furniture, we believe that being environmentally responsible is simply the right thing to do, one, because it is so perfectly logical and two, because it's simply good business. We didn't think it was necessary to talk about or promote our environmental values until our name began to beg the question about where we stood on the issue. We also believe that making furniture with the finest craftsmanship is the right thing to do because we thereby honor the forests, ourselves and our customers in the act of creating objects of enduring quality and integrity. Above all, we believe in the power of innovative and thoughtful design to transform a well-crafted, environmentally friendly object from goodness to greatness. Attaining the summit of great design requires the seamless integration of aesthetic beauty with brilliant function. Great design reaches the highest level of sustainability by continuing to provide pleasure and comfort for your lifetime and for generations to come. How 'green' is Green Design Furniture? And what is 'green' furniture anyway? Two great questions that we are being asked so frequently these days that we thought it would be a great topic for our newsletter. Being 'green' is a core value of our company and has been since the first day we began making furniture in 1993. It also is (and always was) our founder and designer's last name (which makes us coincidentally lucky as well). Let's start with an overview of the meaning of 'green' that creates the context from which you can evaluate a company or a particular product. Simply put, 'green design' is the only tool that will enable us to achieve a sustainable relationship with our environment. It consists of two core values:
Currently, the standard for evaluating the greenness of a piece of furniture concerns itself with the materials that goes into the manufacturing of a product.
Equally significant yet frequently omitted from the equation, are the factors that include the wider societal impact of a design. These aspects of socially responsible design include the environmental impact but also consider a more holistic view of the wider issues surrounding the life cycle of a design.
Embodied Energy: Understanding the true environmental cost of making a product involves a method of accounting that calculates the total amount of energy required to produce a product, from extracting and processing the raw materials, to manufacturing, assembly and packaging, all the way through to warehousing and transporting. Sustainably Harvested: Mature trees are selectively cut, allowing younger ones to replace them. Care is taken to remove logs so that minimal damage is done to forest. Rapidly Renewable: For example, Bamboo (which is a grass, not a wood) grows like a weed. Cork, which spontaneously regenerates (naturally or artificially) Recycled: Convert waste products (agricultural fibers, paper) into useable materials. Also applies to finding a useful application for discarded or waste materials from other manufacturing or building processes. Salvage: take an old barn apart and make a table Non-renewable: materials that are not naturally replaced after they are harvested, such as stone, metals, and various other materials and minerals should be considered non renewable.
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