Our Bamboo Lamps and Wooden Glass Vases Use Sustainable Wood
We believe that many of our customers are as concerned as we are about the effects that our business has on the environment and the world that we all share. By living in Thailand, we are able to oversee and pro-actively interact with our wood carvers and manufacturers to ensure that the timber used in our bamboo lamps and mango wood vases comes from an actively sustained forest. Furthermore we are strong adherents to the policy of fair trading. We again actively ensure, as far as we are able to, that the workers and employers involved in the manufacture of these indigenous Thailand products we sell are remunerated fairly and in proportion to their work.

With global warming and particularly deforestation and the like - so often in the news, many people are rightly concerned about the products they purchase and their effects on the environment. This in turn has spawned a new and highly lucrative market for companies that manufacture “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” products. In the light of this rapidly increasing interest by consumers, many manufacturers and chain stores have aimed to maximise their profits by promoting products as being “green” or with similar buzzwords. Following the recommendations of organisations such as Greenpeace, it was not long before the European Commission introduced controls on standards for the use, misuse and plain abuse of such terminology in product advertising and labelling.

Casting Light on Shady Sustainable Claims
One of the first major difficulties encountered by independent or government organisations, was the seeming impossibility to define sustainability with regard to products and activities. There were clear lines for defining activities that were non-sustainable, but the quality of sustainability was and is still today very much an indefinable quantity. There presently seem to be two methods banded about to justify the use of this term. The first clearly addresses the problems involved directly whereas the second is a rather more indirect means to balance and counteract the negative effects of carbon dioxide production. A recent example of the second method was the claim that 10,000 mango trees were planted in Karnataka India to offset the carbon dioxide caused through the production of the pop group Coldplay's latest CD. This unfortunately received a backlash when it was discovered that most of the trees had died soon after planting.

Direct Reforestation - Light at the End of the Tunnel
The first is the active planting of seedlings to replace any deforestation. This generally requires that a greater number of seedlings are planted for every tree cut down. This should be in the ratio of at least 10 to one to allow for natural wastage. On paper this seems an excellent method and is in its own right highly laudable. Consider that trees have been cut down by humans over the millennia for their housing and living requirements. It is a natural process of trees to reseed themselves and so a balance is maintained. However today this balance is far from maintained and an artificial replanting of logged timber must be considered positive. One must also realise that this is not of immediate benefit and seedlings require several years of supervision and monitoring until they are truly established. If three out of 10 trees survive after 20 years, we may have re-established a par of that one logged tree. It may take a further 20 years though before fully counteracting the effect of lost oxygen production or carbon dioxide neutralisation.

We do make efforts to ensure that our products come from a genuinely sustainable source and welcome you to view our present selection of elegant bamboo lampsand attractive wooden glass vases, all hand made using wood from sustainable forests.

Author:
Julian Pollock is an internet publisher with a particular interest in ecology and managing the world's resources. He has a chandelier info site on a variety of related lighting topics. These include descriptions of Murano crystal chandelier products as well as the Italian glass chandelier and the more contemporary colored glass chandelier to mention but a few.