Vermont Woods Studios - Eco Furniture Blog

Celebrate Arbor Day!

"Other holidays repose upon the past... Arbor Day proposes for the future." 

 

140 years after J. Sterling Morton initiated Arbor Day in 1872, the future brings an ever-increasing need to fulfill his mission of planting trees.

 

At Vermont Woods Studios, as a wood furniture company, forest conservation is part of the foundation of our business.  Without healthy, sustainable forests we have no future.

 

So we're celebrating Arbor Day today and honoring trees--the wonder plants of the universe.  How about joining us?  Here are some ideas for celebrating Arbor Day from The Arbor Day Foundation.  If you're not up for anything quite that ambitious, then maybe plant a tree for $1 on our Plant A Billion Trees webpage or just have a look at this beautiful 39 second video about trees and wood.

 

Or join the Arbor Day Foundation for $10 and get 10 free trees to plant in your yard.  Have I convinced you yet?  Just in case, I'll leave one final attempt.  This one by a professional--  poet Alfred Joyce Kilmer:

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Nationally, Arbor Day is celebrated tomorrow on April 27.  In Vermont the holiday is the first Friday in May or May 5th this year.  And just so you know, our state tree in Vermont is the Sugar Maple.  What is yours?

Planting Trees Makes Vermont Furniture More Sustainable

 

Naturally, as wood furniture makers, we at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture have to be concerned about forest conservation.  It's the foundation of our company's viability.

Although our Green Mountain Forests in Vermont are healthy and sustainable we know that, from a global perspective deforestation is the Number 1 environmental problem on our planet today.  Deforestation is a huge contributor to global warming, climate change, air pollution (carbon and other emissions from slash and burn practices), habitat loss, biodiversity loss, pollution of marine habitats (due to run-off from pesticides and fertilizers used to transform diverse forests into mono-cultured plantations) and more.

So at Vermont Woods Studios, we are working with The Nature Conservancy in support of their Plant A Billion Trees project.  We plant one tree for every order we fulfill and we support many non-profits dedicated to forest conservation.

We appreciate your concern for the environment.  When you buy wood furniture from us, you can rest assured that the forest where your furniture began it's life, will still be around for generations to come.  As will your furniture!

Tigers, Toilet Paper, Trees and Leonardo DiCaprio?

 

Yesterday I received a gift from my old pal, Sally Blakely.  It was a tiger that she had symbolically adopted in my name from the World Wildlife Fund WWF.  Thanks Sally, you couldn't have picked a more appreciated gift! 

 

If anyone else out there loves tigers, I'm here to tell you that they're not going to be around for long unless we join WWF and other Tiger Conservation projects.  It's urgent.

 

 

My adopted tiger from Sally

Check out this 2 minute WWF video. You can help save the tiger just by knowing these facts:

• in 2009, people in North America consumed about 80 mllion tons of paper
• The fastest growing brands of toilet paper in the United States today, Paseo, APP and Livi have a direct link to rainforest destruction
• Over the past 25 years, Paseo, APP and Livi have clear-cut 5 million acres of Sumatran forest wood
• Much of that land was once tiger, orangutan and elephant habitat
• Since 1985 more than half of Sumatra’s natural forests—some 30 million acres (an area the size of Virginia!)—have been lost
• Sumatra is the only place on earth where elephants, tigers and orangutans coexist
• Indonesia (including Sumatra) is ranked 3rd in the world in terms of total carbon emission due to the slash and burn destruction of its rainforests

Do you see a world with wild tigers, orangutans and elephants in our future?  Do you care?  Here is your chance to change the world.  It's not hard.  Don't buy Paseo, APP or Livi products.  Ask your grocer not to buy them.  Ask your friends, schools and hotels not to buy them.   Buy recycled or FSC certified paper products instead. Post this on your facebook.

Rainforest conservation is one of the main missions of our business at Vermont Woods Studios.  We extend our gratitude to Leonardo DiCaprio who has been an outspoken champion of the tiger and WWF's Save Tigers Now campaign. The goal of Save Tigers Now is to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger but that can't happen unless we change our buying habits. Tiger numbers have declined 97% in the past 100 years. There may be as few as 3,200 wild tigers left in existence, the lowest number ever recorded. 

It's time to turn over a new leaf.

It Is So Sad To See A Species Go Extinct

Today the World Wildlife Fund reports that after losing nearly 70 per cent of its forest habitat and half its population in one generation, the Sumatran elephant is heading for imminent extinction due to deforestation and habitat loss.

These elephants are not alone.  According to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, 3-5 species become extinct every hour of every day. That's up to 45,000 species every year!

What we're doing at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture is trying to raise awareness about the how your choices as a consumer directly affect the extinction of endangered species like the Sumatran elephant.  If you can avoid buying imported forest products, especially wood furniture and flooring (if it's not clearly labelled Made in America--pretty much any furniture you'll find at Home Depot, Walmart, Bob's, Lowe's or other big box stores is imported) you'll be doing your part to lessen global deforestation and destruction of the habitat these elephants live in.

What else are we doing?

We support a number of projects to save endangered species.  Here's one I was pretty excited about last week:  when I was on the Vernon Selectboard a few years back, our town partnered with the Vermont Division of Fish and Wildlife DFW to protect habitat and save the critically endangered spotted turtle from extinction.  Last week we were able to celebrate our work.  It's 6 or 7 years later, but finally through a long process, the turtle habitat is being cared for and hopefully we'll start to see their population come back.

How about you?  Tell us what you're doing in the comments below or on our Vermont Furniture Facebook.

Coffee Is For The Birds

I do love my work here at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture but if I could pick a dream job for just a month or a year, I think it might be working as a biologist for The Vermont Center for Ecostudies VCE.

Here's how they describe their work:  "VCE biologists scale high peaks, paddle remote ponds, slog through wetlands, visit ordinary backyards, and traverse the Americas to study birds, insects, mammals, amphibians and other wildlife."  How cool would that be?

One of my favorite VCE project areas is bird conservation.  In fact, we named a line of our furniture after Roz Renfrew a champion VCE ecologist. Roz has dedicated her life to conserving tropical habitat for Vermont migratory birds in places like Hispaniola and Bolivia.  Through her work we've come to understand the importance of buying shade grown coffee.

 

 

 

It turns out that the reason we started Vermont Woods Studios (to promote rainforest conservation) is also the reason to buy "bird friendly coffee".  Whereas coffee used to be grown under the canopy of the rainforest (thus providing great habitat for birds) it's now more profitable to cut the rainforest down and grow coffee in the sun.  Besides requiring tons of pesticides and fertilizers which destroy life in nearby streams, rivers and coastline this un-natural practice eliminates critical habitat for birds.

So... I've been able to make the switch at home, no problem but now I've got to get Douglas to find Bird Friendly coffee for our Kuerig dispenser at work.  I've looked everywhere and can't find it. Any ideas?  I'd welcome your suggestions below or on our Facebook.  Thanks!

Fine Wood Furniture, Sustainability and Rainforest Conservation

Kendall posted a new webpage the other day on the link between your furniture, rainforest conservation and a greener, more sustainable world. It's why we do what we do at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Wood Furniture.

 

Sometimes I feel like a nutcase-- living in Vermont and talking about rainforest conservation all the time.  But I can't help it.  It's one of the Top 3 environmental problems of our time, yet few people seem to know about it.

 

Check out these rainforest facts and let me know if you too see this as a matter of great urgency.

 

1. 1.5 acres of rainforest are lost every second (that equates to 50 million acres a year: an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland combined)

2. 54 of the world's 193 countries have lost 90 percent or more of their forest cover. Rainforests that once covered 14% of the earth's land surface now cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
3. Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next 25 years due to rainforest deforestation.
4. We are losing approximately 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year.
5. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
6. Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations
7. There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
8. In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.
9. In Indonesia, the current aggressive rate of logging could eradicate native forests within only 10 years. Unlike our temperate forests in Vermont for example, rainforests do not regenerate after they are destroyed. Once gone, they are gone forever and along with them the wonderful diversity of plants and wildlife that inhabit them.

If you've managed to read this far, you rock! Leave a comment below or check in with us now and then on Facebook to see what we're doing to to help replant the rainforest with our Plant a Billion Trees project.  Join us and together we can make a difference!

 

Cyber Shopping For The Person Who Has Everything

That's you!  Let's be honest. If you're reading this, you can probably count yourself among the "ones who have everything" right?  And your friends and family are in that group too.  OK, I'm not trying to be a big grinch and stomp down on all our Cyber Weekend shopping fun.  I'm just suggesting that some of the frenzy whipped up over these unbelievable deals is a bit contrived-- maybe you and those on your List don't really need or want an extra flat screen TV anyway. 

So what to buy that would have some meaning?

Here's a short list of my Top 4 Favorite Christmas and Holiday Gifts:

• A $20 donation to Heifer International could offer an education (and a new world) to a child otherwise doomed to a life of poverty in a third world country.  If you can read this story about Beatrice Biira and not be inspired to swap a goat or flock of chickens for the Blu-ray player, I'll be surprised.

•  For the animal lovers on your list, what could be more thoughtful than the World Wildlife Fund symbolic adoption of an endangered species?  Tigers are my favorite animals and they are among the most critically endangered species on earth, but WWF offers over 100 adoption choices from Red Eyed Tree Frog to the Ring Tailed Lemur.  Adoption gifts include a stuffed animal, a personalized, framed adoption certificate and a photo of the animal in the wild.  These are fun for kids and adults alike.

• Do you have any outdoor enthusiasts on your list?  How about an acre of rainforest for them?  The Nature Conservancy has several gift options including adopting an acre of rainforest in Costa Rica, planting trees in Brazil and adopting hummingbirds.  I should mention too that TNC has a cool Green Gift Monday webpage with all kinds of ideas for gifting repsonsibly.
• Swimmers? Surfers? Sailors?  Definitely check out Oceana's Marine Wildlife Adoption and Gift Center and adopt a whale, turtle, shark, octopus, penguin or whatever your favorite ocean species is.

The best part is that there's no Black Friday or Cyber Monday RUSH on buying these items.  But... you could take a big load off your shoulders and get everything done today.  Then you could relax and enjoy the rest of the Christmas season in peace-- what a concept!

 

Sustainable Furniture Sale Results: Nature.Org "Plant A Billion Trees" Fundraiser

Douglas just delivered the numbers for our Sustainable Furniture Sale last Saturday, November 12.  We sponsored a fundraiser for The Nature Conservancy's Plant A Billion Trees Initiative.

I can report that your furniture purchases generated a $418 donation to The Nature Conservancy.  Half of that will be donated to the local Vermont Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and half will to the national/international TNC campaign.

We wish to thank all of our customers and readers who bought furniture or promoted our event.  We look forward to working with Jennifer Kramer, our local TNC representative to further strengthen our partnership with Nature.org.

Furniture Sale Benefits The Nature Conservancy, Plant A Billion Trees Campaign

This Saturday, November 12 Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture Store will be running a fundraiser for The Nature Conservancy's Plant A Billion Trees campaign.  100% of our profits on that day will be donated to The Nature Conservancy. 

Forest conservation has always been a fundamental part of our green mission.  Although Vermont's forests are among the best managed in the world we realize that globally, deforestation is one of the top environmental problems facing the planet today.

In fact, the world’s tropical rainforests are disappearing at a rate of one football field every second!  This deforestation pours carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributes more to air pollution and global climate change than exhaust from the entire transportation sector.  Hard to believe isn't it?   Furthermore, forest animals and plants are being lost at a rate of over 100 species/day due to deforestation.

So, if you're planning a fine furniture purchase or you know someone else who is, please consider buying your furniture this Saturday.  Put your purchasing power to work and help us use green commerce to change the world!

Furniture Sale

Natural, Eco Friendly, Organic Furniture and Global Warming

Our customers usually come to Vermont Woods Studios with a pretty clear understanding of the benefits of natural, organic, eco-friendly furniture.  They're looking to help protect the environment.  They want to know that the wood used in their furniture has been sustainably harvested from forests that are going to be healthy and intact for many more generations.  Customers are also looking to protect their families from toxic substances in furniture finishes that could off-gas and cause respiratory problems.

But did you know that choosing natural, eco-furniture also reduces your carbon footprint and helps reduce global warming?  It's true. Scientists attribute about 20% of global warming to deforestation, particularly that of tropical rainforests, such as the Amazon.

If you're buying imported wood furniture, chances are it was made from illegally harvested wood that was clear cut from the rainforest.  Because there is such widespread counterfeiting of logging documents, consumers are often unwittingly contributing to global warming and the eventual loss of iconic tree species such as mahogany and teak when purchasing imported furniture. 

 

Vermont Woods Studios uses only sustainably harvested American wood in the crafting of our furniture.  Much of it comes from our own Green Mountain Forest.  We support the Forest Stewardship Council, the Nature Conservancy and other non-profits working to preserve the rainforest and stop global warming.  When you purchase organic wood furniture from our store you can rest assured that both your furniture and the forest from where it originates will be around for generations to come.

Using Widgets to Fundraise and Support Good Causes

At Vermont Woods Studios Furniture we get a lot of requests to support good causes.  We've listed many of the causes we support on the webpage that describes our environmental mission.  Our giving is aligned with our wood furniture business and is focused on sustainable forestry, especially rainforest conservation.

If you represent a non-profit environmental organization, I have to recommend a great tool... the fundraising widget.  We use one provided by The Nature Conservancy for their Plant A Billion Trees campaign. 

 

Why do I love it so much?

• It's easy to install on our website
• It enables our customers and our company to donate quickly and easily
• It's a clear visual indicator (thermometer) of how much we've given compared to our goal
• It's auditable

Charitable Fundraisers:  If you come to us with a fundraising request that fits our mission and a widget that's easy to use, we're very likely to put it up on our site and start raising money for you.

 

Plant A Billion Trees

The Nature Conservancy is one of our favorite charities here at Vermont Woods Studios.  TNC has been working to protect Earth's most important natural places — for us and future generations— for nearly 60 years.  They are one of the leading conservation organizations in the world and their reputation for great science and smart partnerships is renowned. 

Plant A Billion Trees is one of TNCs ongoing projects that dovetails with our mission of forest preservation at Vermont Woods Studios.  The goal is to save one of the world's most endangered rainforests,  The Brazilian Atlantic Forest:

"Animal and plant life of every imaginable kind live under the lush, green canopy of Brazil's Atlantic Forest. High in the treetops, golden lion tamarins forage for food while woolly spider monkeys gather fruit and nuts. Blue-winged macaws, red-tailed parrots and countless other birds call out while elusive jaguars prowl the forest floor."

The strategy is to plant a tree for every dollar raised:  one dollar, one tree, one planet.  You'll start to see fundraising buttons on our site as we get this project up and running over the next few months.  Our goal is to raise $2000 for the initiative.  You can make a lasting difference now and for future generations.  All it takes is a dollar.  Thanks for your help!

Vermont Furniture Story To Be Featured on The Weather Channel

Did you know there is a link between the wood furniture you buy and global warming?  Some folks at TWC do and they've invited us to be their guest on The Weather Channel's new live show, The Lightning Rod with meteorologist Mark Elliot.

So what's the link between furniture and the weather?  OK, it's a little tricky but stay with me.  Up to 90% of the furniture we buy in the USA is imported (mainly from Asia) and made from wood that has been illegally clear-cut from the world's rapidly disappearing rainforests. 

Rainforests play a role in regulating global weather by producing oxygen, giving off carbon dioxide, and regulating temperature and moisture.  The oceans (algae) are the other major contributor to oxygen production but as they become increasingly polluted, our dependence upon the rainforests for weather modulation increases.

As rainforests are destroyed for timber that feeds the global market for cheap furniture, they are less able to regulate the weather.  Purchasing furniture made from rainforest woods like teak, brazilian cherry and mahogany supports this illegal rainforest timber trade.  The Washington Post talks about this in more detail in an article, "Corruption Stains the Timber Trade".

Choosing American made furniture and flooring built with sustainably harvested American wood decreases the demand for rainforest woods and helps decrease the rate of rainforest destruction, thereby enabling the rainforest to do its job of regulating global weather.  So that's the link.  We're excited to talk about it more with Mark and the crew of The Lightning Rod.  Watch us live at 10pm EST on Monday July 19th to see how it goes!

Many thanks to Trish Ragsdale, The Lightning Rod producer for all her help in planning and arranging for our appearance on the show.

Portasol, Paradise with a Social and Environmental Mission

 At Vermont Woods Studios, our wood furniture business is built on a foundation of sustainable forestry and we are particularly interested in rainforest conservation.  Through the Eco Preservation Society in Costa Rica we were able to partner with Guillermo and Carlos Piedra in support of their work at Portasol an eco-resort within the local community of Potalon, Costa Rica. 

 

 

Guillermo and Carlos Piedra are pioneers in the development of socially and environmentally responsible resort communities in Costa Rica and indeed the world.  Their innovative development of the eco-community Portasol, a paradise along the western coast of Costa Rica, is nothing short of amazing.

Both Portasol management (The Piedras) and the property owners at Portasol are committed to forest stewardship and sustainability.  They also support the surrounding community of Portalon. 

 

 

  

 

We were introduced to a group of Portasol homeowners who were at the local school, donating text books to the children.  This was the first time the children were ever given textbooks and they were ecstatic! 

 

 

 

The homeowners also donated an incredible computer lab to the school... one I doubt you would find in any other school in Costa Rica!  See our photos on Flicker for more details about the Portalon school.

We are so impressed with this type of partnership.  It's a great example of how responsible, sustainable development can occur in such a way that both the environment and the community are enhanced.  More about how we joined this partnership in the next post.  Thanks for reading!

Measuring our Progress in Acres of Rainforest Saved

A number of non-profits offer a way to “Adopt an Acre of Rainforest”.  For a donation of about $50, you help preserve an acre of forest and in return you usually get a personalized certificate with photos of rainforest, and a subscription to Rainforest magazines and/or newsletters.

We’ve contacted a few of these organizations to see if they would be interested in partnering with Vermont Woods Studios. So for example, when a customer refers someone to us and gets a 5% reward for doing that, we’ll give that customer a choice of either keeping the money or donating it to one of 3 or 4 rainforest preservation non-profits. In return, we would ask the non-profits for a link to us on their website and an opportunity to communicate with their members about what we’re doing. What do you think? If you are a member of a rainforest non-profit, would that work for you? Let us know. We’re interested in measuring our success, and tracking the number of acres of rainforest saved seems like a pretty good indicator.

What We’re Doing…Green Donations

We’re trying to come up with a percentage of Vermont Woods Studios' profits that we can promise to donate to the Rainforest Alliance, the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and other non-profits working to save the rainforest. Last year, being only our second year in business, we had no profits (uh hum…we’re still investing in this business) but we still managed to donate over $1500. This year, we hope it will be much more (and based on profits!). We’re asking for your help in making that happen.

What We’re Doing… Founding Members of the Sustainable Furniture Council, SFC

In September, 2006, I was very fortunate to be able to join with Gerry Cooklin , Susan Inglis and a small group of visionary leaders in the furniture industry to talk about the unique status the furniture industry has as the main consumer of the forest’s most precious species. That was the birth of a non-profit now called the Sustainable Furniture Council, FSC. We are now over 100 members strong, all working to educate consumers and promote sustainable practices in our industry.  Vermont Woods Studios is proud to be a founding member of this world-changing group.

What We’re Doing… Forest Stewardship Council, FSC Certification

Well, first we are careful to ensure that all of Vermont Woods Studios fine furniture is made from sustainably harvested wood. For the most part, we source our wood locally from people we know personally and who adhere to strict environmental laws, policies and guidelines. When a customer requests a tropical wood like mahogany or teak, we ensure it is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC is considered the international “Gold Standard” for responsible forestry management and we achieved FSC certification for Vermont Woods Studios in Feb, 2007. We are very careful to use only FSC certified rainforest woods when we us them at all.

SO, The Furniture Industry Must be a BIG Part of the Solution

And that's how Vermont Woods Studios was born.  Living in Vermont, the fine furniture capital of the world, we saw not just an opportunity, but an imperative to use the elegant, natural furniture produced in our state as a vehicle to help educate consumers about the forest, it's inhabitants, it's importance, it's vulnerability to destruction, and the impact that will have on global warming. And that’s the whole point of this blog. To start a conversation with you and your friends and anyone else you might be willing to reach out and invite to the table—about how we can help change the world by changing the way you think about, and purchase your furniture.

Whereas: The Furniture Industry is a BIG Part of the Problem

Well, there's plenty of blame to go around for industries like timber, soy, beef, fertilizer, pesticide and so on.  Those industries need to get going and get on The Green Train too!  And as the highest value-added industry, The Furniture Industry Needs to Step up and Change the Way it Sources Product.  Here's why:

1. Much of the clear-cutting of the rainforest is done to produce timber for furniture and flooring. Incredibly, up to 90% of today's imported furniture-grade wood is illegally harvested, from the rainforest. Look around your house. If you have mahogany or teak furniture that is not certified as sustainably harvested by a third party non-profit such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) it’s a good bet that furniture came from clear-cutting the rainforest.

2. China has taken over about a third of the world trade in furniture over just the last 8 years, making it the leading importer of timber from tropical rainforests. Logging practices that supply the timber are typically illegal and labor conditions are deplorable. Again, chances are if you’ve purchased furniture in the last 10 years, it was made in China of illegal wood that may have come from as far away as the Amazon in South America. Peter Goodman and Peter Finn of the Washington Post did an informative article on the shocking state of corruption and illegal logging in China and elsewhere.  Read it, then get on board The Green Train!

Vermont Woods Studios Sustainable Furniture