Have you considered the impact that your furniture has on global warming?
Every decision you make about furniture has an environmental impact. When we consider the alternatives to handmade Amish furniture, there are few choices that are as good for the biosphere. Here are some considerations.
When you choose plastic furniture, it does not biodegrade. If it breaks, it goes into a landfill for just about forever. Besides, plastic is made from oil, which means we are using up stored sunlight from the past. The same comments apply to resin furniture. To sustain the biosphere we need to use sunlight stored and replaced every year. Trees can do this for us. Wood is good.
When we purchase pressboard, we are using wood. Often pressboard is made from small trees, and using chips means that very little of the tree goes to waste. On the other hand, pressboard is made by using powerful chemicals and glues that hold the chips together and then hold the finished surface to the pressed chips. These glues are not as environmentally friendly. Some of them may be harmful to the soil or water systems.
Compare Amish furniture to factory made furniture. Here the first difference has to do with the impact of running a factory. A furniture factory many have many employees and draw on electric power from the grid to run saws, belts, sanders, staplers, nail guns, polishers, and other equipment. Amish furniture is made off the electric power grid. It does not burn coal or nuclear power. A furniture shop may use a propane-driven generator. There are fewer electric power tools used, and much of the work is done by hand without electricity. The shops themselves do not use electric lights but rely primarily on natural light.
A second way in which Amish furniture is "green" has to do with the way the owners and employees live. These are not big corporations with executives who drive expensive cars. The people who make the furniture have made a commitment to simple living. They live off the land, usually on small farms. They opt out of living in a consumer culture. If there were a way to measure the "borrowed sunlight miles" that it costs for one Amish worker to live and compare that with the "borrowed sunlight miles" that it costs for another typical American worker to live, most Amish would have the lowest number of miles and the more sustainable lifestyle.
There is a transportation cost for furniture--what it costs in petroleum energy, or borrowed sunlight miles, to deliver the furniture to your door. We can measure the miles from China or Mexico or any number of places that manufacture furniture. In comparison, the miles that it takes to deliver an Amish Oak and Hickory.com product to your door may be more or less than a product from your local store. To make this comparison, check to see where the items in your store were made. You may be surprised.
Even the "made in Thailand" label (or wherever) may not be accurate. Wood may be shipped to Thailand, Japan, or Tennessee from Oregon or Russia or Chile. There is no way for you to know the transportation chain to trace where the wood has traveled to get to you. In the case of Amish furniture, we are trading in wood grown in the U.S.A. and furniture products made in the U.S.A. by people who have chosen simple living and whose life-style is eco-friendly.
If you want your furniture choice to help save our biosphere, shop wisely. Amish furniture is a powerful positive choice.
