Ecological furniture

There is a lot of talk about ecological or natural furniture, often without even specifying what the alleged ecology and naturalness consist of, exploiting the increased sensitivity of the public on these issues for pure marketing purposes.
In our opinion, there are several specific criteria for defining an ecological piece of furniture.

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These are the ones we stick to:

• An ecological piece of furniture needs to be made with natural materials, prather than recycled ones which, although they do not affect natural resources, are of poor quality and are often produced with criteria that are not sustainable from an environmental point of view.
• An ecological piece of furniture is a quality product and must last over time: only by extending the useful life of the product will less waste be produced, with a real benefit for the environment.
• An ecological piece of wood furniture is made with material from responsibly managed forests, based on programmed felling, in compliance with the criteria established by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international entity that certifies that the forest’s ability to regenerate is not compromised.
• Similarly, ecological furniture respects the communities that live in forest regions, often for many centuries, and for whom the forest is a source of wealth and decisive for survival.
• All of our furniture can be taken apart for easy transport and storage, and packaging is kept to a minimum to reduce waste.
• We avoid the use of screws and metal parts that would wear out over time, making the joints, and therefore the furniture itself, more fragile. Our furniture is designed to be assembled and disassembled many times without compromising the strength and reliability of the joints.
• Everything we produce is meant to be used for a very, very long time.
• The furniture must be able to be transformed, depending on the size and morphology of the spaces where they are placed. This is why many products are modular: bookcases can change their shape and size by adding or removing modules; children’s furniture can be transformed to prolong its use over time; chests of drawers and storage products can be put together in other ways and new parts can be added.
• Our furniture is light-weight because the material used is light-weight. On the other hand, the construction solutions adopted guarantee that the structures can support loads of up to 30 times their weight. Lightness is matched by extraordinary strength and resistance.
• The materials are recognizable. Our woods can be polished or stained, using natural products, varnishes and oils, without altering their appearance.

TOTEM’s ecological furniture is on display in Milan at the showroom in via Pier Lombardo 6.