Monday, May 19, 2008

A Brighter Shade of Green

(BD)

Speaking of good reps, Andrew Personette from EcoSystems was very helpful and excited by what he's doing, and I quite enjoyed talking to him about it.

They're a young company, but they have extremely high Green standards, so I expect they'll be a group to watch out for.

This is their "Bamba" chair:

Two of them are cut from a single sheet of bamboo plywood, leaving practically no waste.

Bamboo of course is totally sustainable, harvested without killing it.  The sheet can be cut anywhere with the right machinery, which drastically shortens travel distances.  When it does need to be shipped, it can be shipped flat, lowering its carbon footprint and packing materials even further, and then assembled on premises.

The hardware is quite tight, each element clicks firmly into place, and requires no special tools. 
But this also means that you can change its configuration around as you need, so the chair doesn't become obsolete.  The cushions are held in place by wooden pegs, so you just slide the pegs out to remove them, clean them, replace them, or change their upholstery.  If for some reason you just have no more need for the chairs, EcoSystems will pick them up to recycle or reclaim the materials.

Being a kind of kit of parts, the design allows infinite flexibility, and they also offer pieces like side-tables and so on:


At the show they were selling a miniature version of the chair kit that had like a little bunny rabbit and a little monkey you could sit on it.  He said they wanted to show how happy the furry creatures would be that you bought this chair.  I thought they should have bunnies for the life-sized version, but that might be wasteful of resources.

EcoSystems
furniture for environmental harmony
info@ecosystemsbrand.com

©2008, Ryan Witte

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