Pics from Alt Build 2009

Here's a few pics from Alt Build 2009 that took place over the weekend. Great event with a tremendous turnout and some very very cool green products!

Dan and the Vernare crew outdid themselves with the booth this year!


Maku Lounge Chairs with Sunset and White cushions


Maku 48" Spa bench with the Maku 72" dining table and if you look closely there is a sneak peek at the new multifunctional Silent Spring piece that will be in the new DV collection that is due out soon...!

Bainbridge WA - Eco friendly High School

Check out this cool new HS in Bainbridge, Washington. It's pretty cool to see LEED certified and eco friendly construction practices becoming more prevalent in all all aspects of our lives.



click here to read more.

Be sure to check out Velocity Art and Design in Seattle for all the best selection of eco friendly furniture in the NW! By the way, John and crew at Velocity Art and Design are proud to offer Maku products as part of their great in store selections!

Arbus Magazine

The Maku LE Lounge Chair is Featured in the newest issue of Arbus Magazine. Many thanks to Shaan @ Nest Living for getting some Maku love in this killer zine!

Earth Day 2008 Tuesday April 22nd

Coming up this Tuesday is Earth Day 2008. What better way to make a Green Statement and commitment to the Environment that starting on Earth Day. Just make 1 commitment to the eco system and stick to it for the entire year and use it as a growing point to continue adding on for years to come.

Be it driving less / riding your bike to work one day a week, recycling (more), making an effort to pick up trash that somebody else has so rudely dispersed on the street. Or investing in green home products such as Maku Furniture

Even the little things can make a big difference if we all do it!

Structured Green Grand Opening!

This Saturday April 19th (3 days before Earth Day 2008!) Savannah's first sustainable living showroom opens. Maku Furniture is proud to be one of the key brands represented in Structured Green so stop by and check out the Maku Lounge Chairs and Maku Chaise lounge that Mike and Raquel have in stock. You can also special order any pieces in the collection that are not in stock.

A BIG HIGH5 to the entire crew @ Structured Green and best wishes for a successful opening!

West Coast Salmon run all but gone...

Being tied closely to the ocean, I see macro and micro changes in our eco system all the time. Both good and bad.

Fortunately here in North County San Diego the kelp beds have made a comeback! They were all but gone a few years ago and then an agressive kelp reforestation program brought it back. Not only does the kelp offer a home to many species of oceanic life but it also creates some nice glassy surfing conditions inside the kelp when the wind is blowing on the outside.

What does kelp in North County San Diego and Salmon have to do with each other. Well, much like the kelp forests a few years ago the west coast salmon have now all but disappeared. As recently as 2002, 750,000 adult salmon were counted in the run up the Sacramento river. It is estimated that less than 90,000 Chinook ran last fall and that number is projected to plummet to as little as 58,000 this fall. Less than 10% of the salmon that ran in 2002 an over 90% decrease!!

While certainly I feel that some of this can be attributed to climate change and perhaps cyclical nature, there is no doubt in my mind that most of the decline in the west coast salmon run is attributed to man. More runoff / pollution / sediment build up in the Sacramento river basin from increased building, farming, and pretty much people not caring about our impact on our eco system.

There are solutions to these problems, I always talk about the easy ones such as recycling. It's not that hard to put your plastics, papers, bottles and cans in a separate container for the garbage man to pick up. Remember the North pacific gyre and the blob of plastic the size of Texas floating in the ocean...?

Eating organic foods that don't use synthetic pesticides which runoff into the river and oceans creating algae / plankton blooms and sucking the oxygen out of the water.

Conserving energy and turning off lights or electronics when you are not in the room.

When are we as an entire society going to start seeing the impacts firsthand and change the way we live to help mother earth heal from all this damage? It appears that we are willing to pay $4 for a gallon of gas and looks like we will be paying $30+ for a pound of wild Salmon in the near future. At some point society has to take a stands and say enough is enough look at what we are doing to our environment. I think that time is nearing.

Act locally and think globally. I know that's kind of a played out saying but it's true and we can each make a difference together if we take a stand and do what is right.

Earth Hour 2008!

Join Maku furniture, hundreds of companies and millions of people in taking a stand against global warming and participate in Earth Hour 2008 this Saturday @ 8pm.

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

"Best in show" Mod Livin - Denver

Check it out: one of our newest members of the Maku Furniture family, Jill and crew @ Mod Livin in Denver are holding their 2nd annual Best in Show plastic puppy event. All proceeds from this event go to benefit the Denver Animal Care Foundation which provides low cost veterinary services to those who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

Looks like a fun time so and you can vote online for your favorite!

Top "5" Green Living Facts

Sorry for the lack of updates. As spring is quickly approaching Maku Furniture continues to gain more and more momentum in the marketplace and there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day, which is good of course...!

So while reading the Sunday paper yesterday morning while chilling on the Maku sectional in my backyard, I came across this little gem of info in the North County Times real estate section. The Article is titled "It's easy living green, eco friendly homes reduce carbon footprint"

The story goes on to talk about a new development called Del Sur in Black Mountain Ranch (as if San Diego needs more development..!). But the good news is this 1800 acre development will feature eco friendly building tactics such as Tankless water heaters, Solar Power, weather based irrigation systems. It's good to see that despite the rampant over development of what once used to be a Wonderfully small city by the beach is in some cases taking a green approach.

A big HIGH5 to the Black Mountain Ranch LLC development group for taking some initiative in green home building!

Now back to the original intention of this post. The top 5 "Green" Living facts as brought to you by the ever progressive North County Times.

• The U.S. Residential sector is only 2nd to Chinese heavy industry in terms of INeffecient energy use ((McKinsey Global institute)
• If every home replaced the 5 most used bulbs in the house with efficient compact fluorescent bulbs over 1 trillion lbs of greenhouse gases would be kept out of the air over the course of the bulbs life. (of course it can be debated that the process for manufacturing fluorescent bulbs outweighs the benefits...)
• Green Building, design, and construction drastically eliminate the V.O.C. that we are all potentially exposed to over time.
• Landscape irrigation accounts for nearly 1/3 of all residential water use. If these were replaced with Weather based systems over 24 billion gallons of water annually could be saved according to the EPA.
• An average 2000 sq ft home generates an estimated 4 tons of construction waste. With a little planning and prep it is possible for 90% of that waste to be recycled! (Hello, Any home builders listening...?) Think of the financial savings...
  

Green Beer, Green Living, Green Furniture, and my great grandma

Wow, the quad whammy on St Paddy's day.

First a very happy Bday wish to my great grandma who was born on this day in 1898. She's be gone about 10 years now but every St Paddy's day I tip one in honor of her!

Green Beer - You've probably heard us mention New Belgium Brewing from Colorado and Full Sail Brewing from Oregon. Not only are these guys some serious brew masters but they really exemplify the "Green Business" From utilizing the winds of the gorge at the Full Sail Brewery to brewing the Organic Mothership Wit at New Belguim these companies IMHO are setting the standards what eco friendly business should be all about.

Green Living - While we are never ones to turn down a good beer, the Green of St. Paddy's day should be more than just understanding the heritage of the Irish and partaking in the culture. It should be a day where we all look at our impacts on the eco system and what we can do to lessen that impact. We really like to talk about recycling because it is one of the easiest things you can do. As we have written in the past about the viscous blob of plastics floating in the North Pacific gyre, it is a no brainer to recycle your plastics - bags, containers, bottles, etc. Even using a camping bottle for your water everyday is better than drinking from 5 different plastic bottles each day...

But lets not forget about recycling things such as paper too. Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing paper from virgin timber. So not only are you saving a tree but also reducing your carbon consumption footprint by using products that take less energy to manufacture.

Green Furniture - Well thats an easy one because that is what we are all about. To all of us at Maku Furniture, "green" is more a way of life than a "marketing story". From supporting and wearing eco friendly clothing brands such as Mission Playground, participating in beach cleanups, recycling paper, plastics, and cans, to eating organic foods and of course partaking in some of the great beers of Full Sail and New Belgium Brewing companies. Especially on this great day of March 17th!

So I leave you with one last thought an old Irish limerick

There was a young lady one fall
Who wore a newspaper dress to a ball.
The dress caught fire
And burned her entire
Front page, sporting section and all.