PSFK Talks to Designer Thomas Bina, Environment Furniture

How has sustainability evolved within the company?

We are establishing our carbon footprint. On the production side we are switching to all water-base finishes. The wood is reclaimed and the veneers are becoming all certified sourced. Within our showroom, we use recycled paper and glass for displays. We also look at the lighting and try to make is as eco-friendly as possible. For Environment going forward it’s really about the innovative use of materials that most people can’t find or use. I spend most of my time going to places no one else visits. It could come from a village or meeting with an artist and seeing what is really going on and trying to bring that to the US.

What are your thoughts about the current product line? Where do you see Environment fitting in relation to retailers like West Elm or Crate and Barrel?

The way the line is today, to me, this is the first step of where I want to go with the company. I have a lot of other materials and concepts that are in the pipeline that I can only launch at certain stages. As far as the marketplace is – see us as organic contemporary. I like the fusion of old and new materials mixed together in a very clean and contemporary way. Most people who use old woods do so in a very traditional sense. More in the colonial style or Spanish. I think the way I used it was very innovative aside from the designs.

You’ve just opened two new retail stores. There aren’t that many furniture makers with their own shops. Was having your own retail stores always a goal?

Originally one of our original retail customers ABC Home in New York was doing this big project in Los Angeles and they were looking for manufacturers to participate. They gave you 3,000 square feet and you didn’t pay rent, only a percentage of sales. You were in charge of manning it, doing the merchandising and stocking. They handled all the advertising and publicity. We thought, it’s in LA right in our backyard, let’s give it a shot and see how it’ll go. No expectations at all. But to our surprise, it became a phenomenal success. They were expecting to generate a set amount of sales per square foot, and we doubled it. So that’s when we really considered looking into retail ourselves.

‘Organica’ is a downloadable pdf available on your website. It’s an interesting alternative to typical furniture catalogs. Are you planning more issues?

It’s more of a newsletter, we didn’t want to just show photos. It talks about things that were involved with, it give some background about were the wood comes from, it shows some projects were working on. It’s more of a letter, which I find more appealing. It’s been very well received. We’d like to have more issues soon.

You even show some concept sketches at the very end from your sketchbook. Giving a teaser of upcoming products?

Those are some mid-century inspired pieces I was working on. I do all my drawings by hand. I’m so primitive it’s ridiculous.

Environment Furniture
876 Broadway btw 18th & 19th St
New York, NY