Eco friendly woodworking

[EcoFurniture]

As more and more consumers are making environmental friendly purchases and are re-thinking their actions. So should we as woodworkers. There is a growing demand in "green products" and a lot of companies claim to be green.... the reality is, that many companies don't really know how to create eco friendly products, therefore there is a LOT of so called green washing going on.

Because of that, I thought I should share a bit of my knowledge in this field.

Anyhow,

This post is not being intended to convert anyone into a treehugger or anything like that. All points are made based on my knowledge from owning and operating
www.ecofurniture.ca 

I will keep my explanations simple and short with as many links to interesting resources.

Enjoy!

1. Buy local! By doing so, you reduce your carbon footprint and also support other businesses
2. Buy fast renewable materials. Who says you NEED to be using some fancy looking tropical wood? Use figured maple, walnut or anything else grown around you. You would be surprised how much your clients would like to buy a piece from you with a "story" attached to it!
3. Buy non-toxic. That means leave the formaldehyde plywood in the shelf and opt for the slightly more expensive Columbia : http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/products/prodpb.aspx
4. Buy high quality that lasts! Hinges, slides and other hardware made of metal can be easiely recycled 50 years down the road. The same for tools--well, I guess I don't have to tell festool owners about that
5. Construct your pieces so that they can be recycled (used for other pieces) in the future. Nothing lasts for ever anymore and people are changing lifestyles several times during there life. Therefore we have to start thinking out of the box too. Instead of glueing and pinning your kitchen cabinets together, how about just hidden screws and knock down hardware? Once those cabinets are on the wall, they will be stiff enough and will easielly come apart for recycling 50 years later! as a result we don't fill up our landfills!
6. Use natural finishes. But be careful, not everything labelled "green" is non-toxic! Although it may be non-toxic after it's cured, but how did it get produced, who was exposed to the toxic off gassing? We are using oils and waxes extracted from plants and not from mineral oils.
7. It's all about image! What do you drive? i'm not kidding, potential clients watch out for that! I would have lost several contracts already if I would have shown up with a big gas guzzler.....
8.Clients really like it when you treat your employees with respect and pay them a fair wage and not just the bare minimum--brag about it! It's all about fair trade!

There many many more points that I should have mentioned but for now I think that is enough to digest

Last a couple of interesting materials we like to work with:
http://www.plyboo.com/
http://www.paperstoneproducts.com/
http://www.afmsafecoat.com/
http://www.fsc.org/
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/green-furniture/index.html

 

[Dave Ronyak]

EcoFurniture,

Please don't misunderstand me.  I believe that everyone should act sensibly and take responsibility for taking care of the earth we all live on.  I don't intend to start a flaming contest, but I disagree with some of your talking points.  I have logged and milled some of my own lumber, harvesting trees that would otherwise have been left to rot or used for firewood.

Your comments are likely very appropriate for anyone doing business in California and perhaps also the rest of the West Coast region of USA.  Personal values of many people living there are not necessarily the same as in other area of USA.  Only California has CARB.  But I digress... ,

I use mostly local woods, but what is the harm in using tropical woods, provided they are harvested in any ecologically sound manner so the species and the forrests and the biological diversity are maintained?  Some species replenish themselves very quickly, lyptus being one example.  At least one of the major forrest product companies has large tree farms (forests) in Brazil that can be harvested every 15-20 years.  Many tropical and foreign woods offer unique properties that cannot be duplicated with the local woods available to many of us.  There aren't any Ohio woods that can match the properties of teak, mahogany, rosewood, etc.

RE finishes, how do you think those oils and waxes are extracted from those plants?  As you stated, many natural products are poisonous, just as many man-made products are not.  For example, turpenes are naturally occurring, and so is creosote.  That alone doesn't make them harmless.  Formaldehyde if chemically reacted into a different and stable form may no longer be harmful, most of the problems related to formaldehyde are due to it being released as a vapor from products, because the chemistry was not balanced as it could and should have been during manufacture.  Other chemicals may start out safe but later degrade or transform into harmful products.

Dave R.

 

[woodshopdemos]

Cherl Tiegs has all green residence. That is enough for me.