Audacious Ideas
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Re-framing the Future: A Call to Action for a Just Transition for the Reupholstery Industry
‘Unite and rebuild’ proclaimed an article, in 2019, about how an industry once left to perish could be on the verge of a comeback. The idea that the National Upholstery Association, a brand new trade association started solely by women and dedicated to a trade full of tradition, honor and importance, had launched with such little media fanfare, infuriated me. Determined to imagine a narrative beyond the tired, formulaic piece about DIY upholstery or an upholsterer’s retirement, I wrote one myself. I typed that proclamation as one of the NUA’s newest volunteers, hungry to join others in collective action at the industry level. I knew already that reliance upon upstream…
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How Do You Like Your Coffee?
If this gorgeous dresser was a cup of coffee it would be Turkish, robust, dark, slightly sweet. It savors patience over speed, respects tradition, and expects you to know how to avoid the grinds. Its perfect match is someone who loves craft over convenience and staring at tiny details. The opposite of this dresser is an instant coffee pod with sweetened creamer.
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The Conscious Builder Podcast
Thanks Casey for this opportunity to talk about furniture waste from the bottom up, normalizing reuse, the types of systems change we need, place-based solutions, and why it’s time not for a new sofa, but a new narrative. Listen below.
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Tell Me More
Small white sticker reads:Night & Day FurnitureVancouver, WA 98686Model # Cinnamon Futon Bunk BedMonth / Year of Mfg. November 2005Do not remove this label Fascinating and so informative. While they’re at it, could they print another sticker to address their wood sourcing practices, worker conditions, the toxicity of the finishes, and perhaps their end of life plan?
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Unwanted Furniture Can Help Us Build Back Better
Looking back, looking ahead. Reflecting. Exhaling. Hoping. Readying for the job ahead. What does this moment, this election, have to do with this picture? This discarded, plastic office chair that sits outside of a closed down restaurant, below newly built luxury condos in one of the most expensive cities in the country, that’s been ravaged by a housing crisis, Covid, racial and wealth inequality, and diminished economic prospects? Everything. We must build back better. We are part of the solution.
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The Final Wish of an Old Table
“So let me get this straight, IKEA, the largest producer of disposable furniture, who after seven decades of filling up landfills with their low cost, single use stuff, who helped shift our collective consumption patterns away from reuse and towards fast furniture, and, as we have just 7 years and 77 days to make drastic changes to keep our emissions below the 1.5 degree threshold, according to the Climate Clock, are now offering to buy back their stuff. Super. For them, and their large private company. Then, there’s me. An old, real wooden coffee table who, for every year I live, provides a benefit to the planet, for not needing…
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Oakland Commits To Achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2045
Huge shout out to the City of Oakland whose 2030 Equity and Climate Action Plan and a Resolution committing Oakland to achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2045 passed unanimously by Oakland’s City Council on Tuesday night. “These are groundbreaking steps for Oakland, setting the stage for our work over the coming decade. Achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 will require profound transformation of our building, transportation, and waste sectors,” read Shayna H. Hirshfield-Gold, 2030 ECAP Project Manager’s email announcement. It was an honor to be an adviser on the Material Consumption + Waste section, as a Board Member of the Reuse Alliance. You must check out page 70: “Support the Reuse, Repair,…
