Better Living Show - Portland

Our good friend Dennis from Eclectic Home in Portland sent in this shot of the Maku Dining Collection from the Better Living show last weekend. Dennis and Eclectic Home continue to set the standard for Sustainable Furniture Retailing in the NW and it is great to have him as part of the Maku Furniture Family!

Check the Eclectic Home blog for more updates.

Welcome Structured Green!

Check it out, Maku Furniture just added another member to the family! Mike and Raquel are super cool southern cats with a great new store called Structured Green in Savannah, GA. Their website is up and running and the new store will be open in the next few weeks. A fresh shipment of Maku goods like the Maku Lounge Chair, Maku Side Table, and Maku Chaise are on their way so if you live in the Savannah area be sure to stop by and say hello!

Word has it that the new Discovery channel Planet Green is going to do a feature on Mike and Raquel's new store!

It's pretty rad to not only see these terrific Sustainable Retailers popping up through out the country but equally cool that Maku Furniture is privileged to partner with them!

A big virtual High 5 and Congrats Mike and Raquel!

Organic Cotton

Our friends over at econsciousmarket sent over this great info on Organic cotton.

DID YOU KNOW?
It takes 1/3 lb of toxic chemicals to produce just one conventional cotton T-shirt. How many tees do you have in your closet?
Conventionally-grown cotton crops account for twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the U.S., many of which are classified as the most toxic by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Organic Cotton: What is it?

Organic cotton is grown and harvested with natural fertilizers and in soil free from pesticides, defoliants, fertilizers, drugs, hormones, or synthetic chemicals. Organic farmers rely on crop rotation, mechanical cultivation, and botanical or biological means to control pests and weeds.

All of us @ Maku Furniture have been longtime supporters of companies such as Mission Playground and prAna that have been manufacturing super stylie clothing with an eco minded attitude since back in the day or one of our favorite up and coming brands RVCA

But "The Fabric of our Lives" i.e. Cotton is used in far more products than just clothing. Be it bedding and linens or as cottonseed oil in the feed that used for the livestock and ultimately the milk you drink... Just another way that unwanted pesticides can end up in your home and on you dinner table!

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.

Big time media coverage!

Just finished an all day photo shoot with a top Men's lifestyle magazine. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag until the issue comes out but it should be a killer story on Maku and myself.

Many thanks to PR guru and all around nice guy Bill Byrne of BBPR for setting this up. It has taken well over 6 months for this to come to fruition and I couldn't more stoked right now!

Further proof that Maku continues to grow and garner more attention despite the challenging economic conditions. Look for more details around June when this issue debuts!

Yeah Keir , 1st place Nippon Open!

Way to Keir, 1st place at the Nippon Open in Japan!! Sweet! Keir of course rides for Maku Furniture, Burton Snowboards, Gravis footwear, a bunch of other cool companies, and is a Carlsbad loc!

Check out all the results and good stuff here.

More on the Global Green Oscar Party

Here's a cool little video of the Global Green Oscars party I found on Lime.com Around 2:11 is where you start to see a bunch of Maku Furniture and our good friend Daniel from Vernare.

Welcome Orange Skin to the family!

WOW, 2 new Maku Furniture partners to announce in 2 days!

Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the world and home not only to many great pubs and of course my favorite mother-in-law (ok, she's my only mother-in-law, but she's super cool!) But also home to one of the finest modern furniture retailers in the country - Orange Skin.

Graunk, his partners, and the rest of the Orange Skin crew not only hold down the title relating to all things hip and modern in Chi town, they are also involved in many design projects throughout the midwest.

We are really excited to have Orange Skin representing us in Chicago and welcome aboard!

Welcome Mod Livin - Denver

Check out it - Maku Furniture is pleased to welcome Erick, Jill and the crew from Mod Livin in Denver to the family and officially rocking Maku in their amazing store. If you live anywhere in the rockies and especially the front range, Mod Livin is a must see store.

We are really excited to partner with Mod Livin and look for great things to come!

Somebody is getting it!

I've been meaning to post this for a while and just now getting around to it. Thomas Prais is the editor of Furniture style magazine and a while back he did a great little article on marketing to a younger more affluent and vibrant demographic. Of course this article included some commentary on Maku's strategy and a few quotes by your truly. In the world of Baby Boomeritus old school furniture marketing it was refreshing to see that Maku's strategy was starting to resonate!

A few months later he followed it up with a small online piece talking about the power of email / electronic communication as a form of branding. Those of you industry types that are on our mailing and get our newsletter know what I am talking about.

Here is a link to the online story that Thomas wrote

And here is some brief commentary at the end of his segment. Thanks for the great words Thomas it is refreshing and I am really glad that what we are trying to do is starting to resonate in a fairly stagnant old school market place!!

Thomas 2.0 Responds: I think Maku has put together a pretty smart marketing strategy. Other than, perhaps, at the very highest end of the furniture price spectrum, the furniture industry seems to be highly committed to hobbling along with small marketing budgets, and advertising strategies from the 1950s. Most furniture marketing seems to be flyers and commercials featuring uninspired product shots and a promise of low, low prices. Which I guess is fine, IF the key to commercial success is waiting for a consumer to decide she wants to buy something and then making sure she knows that your company sells that said something, and IF she even notices your commercial sandwiched between their favorite TV show and far more compelling, entertaining commercials (and that’s assuming she doesn’t TIVO past commercial breaks entirely). What I like about Maku, which reaches out to Gen X and Y consumers, is that they’ve picked up on this lifestyle branding thing pretty well, going out to Extreme Sports venues, sponsoring competitions, etc. In other words, they’re connecting their product with something their intended audience cares deeply and passionately about (and, in this case, the consumerrs have the scars to prove it). If your selling something to sit on, I guess a price story is the only one that makes sense. But if you can transform your product into the locus where a consumer’s life intersects with her desires, passions and self-image, well then you’re creating desire, not just waiting for it to happen. I don’t think a lot of people in the industry understand how important brands are in the lives of my generation (I’m a Gen-Xer). I don’t particularly like that aspect of my generation, but there it is. We Gen-Xers carve our identities out of the stuff we buy. We Gen-Xers love our IKEA, our Starbucks, our J. Crew. When we get together we talk about the stuff we’ve bought and how great (or awful) a brand is. Shopping becomes our master narrative, consumption is how we change the world. So we especially love it when a brand is associated with things we either (a) care about or (b) like to think that we care about. In addition to its Extreme Sports angle, Maku also associates its brand with art, travel and saving the environment. I think they’ll do well in the long term. Thomas 2.0, Furniture Style Magazine 12/20/2007 at 10:50 AM

Global Green party update

sorry, no pics yet waiting for them to arrive from some of the photog's and like a knucklehead, I forgot my little digi cam in the car...

But, the party was pretty cool and for an amazing cause over $420,000 was raised! There were a lot of A list celebs chilling on Maku pieces from Sophia Bush, Selma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, and Molly Sims (all ohhh so hot!) to Oliver Stone, Bill Maher, Adrian Grenier and I think I saw Pete Wentz or an emo look alike.... :) from Fall Out Boy, yeah Pete way to get your green on!

All in all it was a super fun event and we were privileged to be involved with Global Green, Vernare, Cisco Home and all the other great sponsors of the party. Oh and by the way, my favorite brewery New Belgium was dolling out some great Mothership Wit that made things that much better!

Here are a few clinks with some added coverage of the event.

Click Here

Click Here for a few pics of celebs and Maku pieces in the background or on them

Click Here

5th Annual Global Green Oscars "pre party"!

Getting ready to head up to LA for the Big "Global Green" pre- Oscars party tonight. Oh no, what am I gonna wear...! I don't think my typical flip flops and shorts / t shirt is gonna cut it...

Maku totally dialed in the Spider Room at The Avalon with a bunch of cool pieces like our sectional and lounge chairs in conjunction with our ultra hip West Hollywood retailer Vernare for all the VIP's to chill on.

Should be a fun night for a good cause and I will post up some pictures tomorrow! In the mean time here are a couple of links with info about the event.

click here and here for more good stuff