Sustainability: Forever at the Core of Our Design Process
From the beginning, our products, and the way we provide customer service issue from a mindset that seeks out the root cause of challenges. Also known as design thinking, it is a foundational principle for us.
This way of thinking shows up in all our conversations, from product design, to which business systems to install. It even shows up in our conversations with prospective customers when they ask if we can produce our chairs with conventional lumbar support. That is always an opportunity for us to educate them about the root cause of low back pain, and how our approach to furniture design is to start well upstream of the symptoms of "sitting disease".
The book, Cradle To Cradle, and the extensive network of standards and certifications it has spawned was an early inspiration for us.
When we first went to market with our products, we were fortunate to have local upholsterers willing to produce our unconventional furniture. Though they didn't use the language of circular economy and sustainable manufacturing, they were eager to educate us about the downstream effects of modern furniture design. It was truly distressing to them, the number of pieces of furniture that they had to refuse to re-upholster for their customers. Only the furniture made 50 years ago is suitable to be refurbished. They pointed out (as this video does) that nearly all upholstered furniture is so poorly constructed that they have to inform their customers that the next stop for it is the landfill. Unfortunately, this scenario is by design, when profit is put ahead of people or planet.
As a result of this education from our local partners, we were determined to maintain the sturdy build quality of our early prototypes, (by mass market standards, our products are over-designed) and ignore the advice we were receiving to reduce the sales price by designing the re-upholsterability out. As a result, we receive higher quality from our upholstery shop partners, and after fifteen years of producing this furniture, the few pieces that have come back for re-upholstering were easily serviced. We still utilize local artisans.
Early versions of our products utilized FSC-compliant plywood for the cushion cores and legs. Though these met sustainable forestry standards, we were very pleased to see the sustainable sourcing and low-impact manufacturing metrics published by Plyboo (see their lifecycle analysis). In addition, the bamboo product had superior performance in our products, as well as being more satisfying and safe to work with by our woodworkers. We made the decision to use bamboo exclusively for our floor desks and bamboo-legged Soul Seats. The bamboo was also able to be finished with water-based shellacs, adding to the safety of the woodworkers processing these components. All this helped to facilitate our BuyBack Program, keeping more furniture out of landfills.
We were thrilled to discover that Pendleton Wool had a product that met the Cradle-to-Cradle standard. Their Eco-Wise wool has been a very popular choice for our customers since we introduced it several years ago.
Our conversations about sustainable solutions aren't just with our local artisans. We regularly have these conversations with prospective and existing customers. Customer inquiries have been a major contributing factor to our material choices. The initial search for an alternative to the plywood came from a customer. The seamstress that produces our slipcovers was very helpful in finding 100% organic cotton as well as hemp-based fabrics. When customers wanted an alternative to conventional foam for our padded slipcovers, her experience working with natural latex foam was very helpful.
Another reason that we have been able to maintain the durable build quality of our products, is because we designed for durability from the outset. As a result, we have found that our products can accommodate a wider range of body types. When one designs for durability, you are also designing for reparability. Many of our clients have been able to perform upgrades and repairs themselves. And for the occasional situations where they can't, the product is worthy of being returned for repair.
In researching the various materials that our seat frames could be made from, we were pleased to discover that the domestically produced steel we use is roughly 90% recycled material. This would also be true of the domestically produced legs we use for our Flow Desks.
In the design process of new products, we put a lot of thought into how the new version can be compatible with existing designs and components. This has allowed us to utilize the same cushions for our manually adjusted chairs as well as our new auto-adjust perch model. Our Ottoman uses the same mechanism found in the auto-adjust perch. The seat plate for the fully auto-adjust bamboo model (coming in 2024) will be interchangeable with the task chair version.
We have incorporated compostable plastic bags for packaging the fasteners and other small parts. We are currently searching for the same material to replace our larger poly bags.
Part of the sustainability story we are most proud of is the growing number of customers who have utilized our BuyBack Program because the use of our product has gained them enough hip mobility to choose to work primarily on the floor. What this means, is that the chair has functioned as designed. It has brought a customer more deeply into floor culture so that the chair can be passed on to the next person ready to make the same journey. Not only does this reduce the number of chairs that might have ended up in the landfill, but consider all of the unpurchased furniture as a result of that customer regaining access to the floor. Not to mention the follow-on effects of better mobility and health.
Just recently, someone who didn't have any of our products made the connection about floor culture and ordered a custom version of one of our floor desks that would be large enough to function as her young family's dining table. They will be able to stay well upstream of health problems associated with conventional chairs, couches, and recliners. We were so delighted to have a prospective customer participating in the circular economy of healthy ideas being supported by a tangible product we could produce for them.
Do you have ideas about how we can improve even further? Materials or products you’d like to see from us? Send us an email or leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.