Another Look at Baltix Sustainable Furniture

Warren tells me that way back when TreeHugger started he proposed a post on Baltix and founder Graham, who carefully reviewed every post for its design cred, rejected it as not up to TreeHugger standard. Graham was right; from a design point of view, the stuff is pretty generic. However, perhaps they are worth another look. Much has changed in two years; LEED has caught on, design for sustainability has become a priority, and they have a buy-back policy that should be a model for the industry. And who knows, maybe some young George Nelson clone will call them up after seeing this post.

The Baltix pallete of materials includes ecowheat board, Ecosunflower board made from sunflower husks, Forbo Marmoleum, recycled plastics and recycled aluminum. Finishes are natural and renewable. They ascribe to the closed loop lifecycle approach and "pledges to reacquire materials at the end of their useful life, which enables recycling, refurbishing, or reuse of the raw materials. The aluminum is valuable and can be easily recycled; Baltix will pay 10% over market recycling rates for any aluminum parts. Baltix will reclaim all eco-materials and is committed to finding the most environmentally sound next use for the material. Depending on the material, this may include being re-ground for use in manufacturing new panels, donation for use by non-profits, or ground into bedding for agricultural use."

They are on to something here- a reasonably priced, green and sustainable office system. Every manufacturer should offer such a buy-back program. If they thought just a little more about how it looked, we could love it. ::Baltix