Green Homes Special Series: Part Eleven: Furniture

After three years of research, the company developed a sofa using only chemical-free components. The satisfied customer spread the word among those with chemical sensitivities and requests poured in. What had been one project led to orders from around the world. Shapiro launched a new company, Furnature, in Watertown, Mass., to develop the special products. The company makes furniture using certified organic fabrics, cotton canvas and wool, and water-based glues and stains without volatile organic compounds. For its natural rubber, which has no organic certification availability, lab reports are available, says Shapiro. With proprietary information restrictions, he adds, “consumers often don’t know what they are getting. If you take all of the home furnishings and put them in an airtight environment, the out-gassing can really affect a number of people,” Shapiro says. “We hear all the time about indoor air quality, sick building syndrome. These people are the canaries of our generation; their immune systems can’t tolerate these things. It’s all about health for people first and that ties in with health for the planet,” says Shapiro. This Knú Desk, large enough to let you work the way you want to, is made from FSC-certified wood whenever possible, says the company. Stylish and sustainable. Knú LLC in Zeeland, Mich., mixes the commercial office and healthcare furniture expertise of its parent company, Industrial Woodworking Corporation, with the creativity of its CEO and designer Brad Davis to create stylish furniture designs for the residential market. Knú sells online (no printed catalogs) and through showrooms in Savannah, Boulder and Brooklyn. Director of Marketing Jerome Alicki notes that Knú uses FSC-certified wood whenever possible, which has been 100 percent so far. Knú uses a low-VOC varnish, furniture legs are of recycled-content steel and lead-free dyes that give bright colors to its children’s furniture. Wood components are produced from FSC-certified, multi-ply Baltic birch. Lamination uses a polyvinyl acetate adhesive that contains no volatile organic compounds. Alicki says Knú is dedicated to working with local suppliers who have demonstrated a commitment to sustainable, low-impact raw materials and 90 percent are within a 50-mile radius. Its eco-friendly aspects go beyond the furniture. Knú and Industrial Woodworking Corp. teamed up with the Carbonfund.org to offset carbon-emitting forms of energy. All electricity, natural gas, air travel and vehicle use is offset using Green-e certified alternative energy credits and through its support of Carbonfund.org's CarbonFree™ program. Its newest plant addition uses F-Bay fluorescent lighting which uses 30 percent less energy than traditional metal halide lighting. IWC heats its building with high-efficiency infrared heaters and vents the heat generated by compressed air systems into the building during winter. It salvages what could have been trash for use as raw material in other products. Most packaging material from incoming shipments is recycled.

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