The Supply Chain is People - Why we should care about the backstory of our object
I recently had dinner with a friend who asked, “what is going on with the supply chain? Are the container ships the problem? Are you noticing anything different?
I was stunned that he had experienced so little impact, while everyone in my industry was struggling daily to get furniture and materials for our work. In conversations with my peers we agreed a therapy group dedicated to the interior design and construction industry would be a hit. Perhaps my dinner guest - a therapist - could start it.
The many moving parts
What has become clearer in the past 2 years is that materials, labor, and transportation all rely on PEOPLE. Without the people, the raw materials can’t be procured, the fabric can’t be woven, the assembly doesn’t happen, the shipping and delivery breaks down.
Using a wood-framed chair as an example, the materials include:
Wood
Fabric
Foam
Batting
Screws
staples
Webbing
Finish (stain, polyurethane, paint)
If factories have to close due to covid, the key ingredients for much of what we use cannot be obtained. If drivers are sick, retire, or quit, our completed pieces can't get to distribution warehouses or delivered to our home. If ports are bottlenecked nothing can get off the ship, and if it makes it to shore, dock workers need to be there to get it to the next step. An imbalance in supply, demand, and the labor force, or any missing element - whether foam, fabric, or metal clips, will make even U.S.A. assembled products impossible to complete.
our global responsibility
According to Statista, The US is the leader in domestic furniture imports, with almost four times the imports from the next in line (Germany) and a stunning import value of over 54 billion dollars. This translates into a lot of people around the world we depend on. Every person weaving the rug, harvesting wood, working in a chemical factory for paint ingredients, and generating countless other products are the people we count on to make everything from luxury goods to heart monitors. It is in our best interest, and the best interest of the world economy and well-being, to keep this community across the globe healthy and thriving.
This moment in history has given us a rare look at the long path and the many people involved in our products. It gives us the opportunity to acknowledge their contribution and to take responsibility for our participation in that system - a system that is not necessarily equitable to the very people who are instrumental in making these products available to us.
WHERE DO WE START?
In his recent article A New Concept for Good Architecture: Embodied Justice, Ethan Tucker writes:
After the green building movement began more than three decades ago, architects, designers, and product manufacturers started paying closer attention to the processes and products forming this long chain, asking questions like “Are these materials safe? Are they natural? How much carbon was emitted to make and transport them? More recently, as global conversations about social justice have become more common, and as a more urgent focus on embodied carbon has prompted architects and designers to trace their materials further back, the scope of these questions has expanded significantly. Practitioners are asking questions like “Who made this product? How did it affect the health and livelihood of those who made it? How did its production impact the community?” In short, they are wondering if the products, materials, and practices employed to create the built environment can somehow do less harm. Such questions are inextricable from larger conversations about race and justice.
This leaves us with the question, how will this awareness and change happen? I believe the furniture industry can follow the same trajectory as the textile/fashion industry - with consumer awareness and pressure prompting change. Along with the pressure coming from the bottom up (the consumer), those at the top (manufacturing) should recognize a potential for profit due to consumer demand. I’m sure a lot of companies want to do the right thing for the environment and people, but appealing to their bottom line may produce more results. As a designer, I am a sales person, and I can choose to present and suggest pieces from manufacturers who are taking social responsibility seriously. More often than not, a client will be happy to pay a small premium to get a piece that doesn’t harm the environment or the people in it.
HOW CAN I TELL WHICH COMPANIES ARE DOING A GOOD JOB?
Finding out who’s doing what may be the biggest obstacle - manufacturing transparency is not commonplace in home furnishings and many companies touting eco-friendly environmental policies hide behind their use of eco-friendly materials while exploiting a labor force for their production.
There are a number of certifications available, which may appear on sites or selling pages. This post from blacksmithint.com has a good list which goes across several categories. Some of the familiar furnishing labels are; FSC certification, which indicates that the wood used was responsibly sourced, Greenguard, representing textile products with low chemical emissions, and Goodweave, an organization working to end child labor in the weaving industry. There are many certifications throughout the textile industry that address materials AND labor. In fact, the textile industry is farther along on this journey and we should be looking at that model to follow.
Certifications can also be misleading - there are some certification organizations (including well-meaning programs) which only require a paid membership to get the label, with no accountability or follow up needed to demonstrate that they are following the guidelines and requirements of that certification.
So, identifying appropriate certifications and pressing companies to obtain them would be one big step, and promoting a dialogue between these certifying agencies and our industry would be another. B-corps continue to be a great formal structure for committing social and environmental responsibility, along with disclosures as to how those responsibilities are being met.
Demanding transparency from companies on their social policies is another important factor for progress. 12 years ago West Elm was not showing FSC labeling on products. Now West Elm has increased their sustainably-sourced products every year. They (and parent company, Williams Sonoma) are members of the Fair Trade association, which DOES address the human rights side of manufacturing. I’m all for celebrating the companies that are making steps in the right direction by talking about it, and by buying from them.
The success of the furniture industry depends on the success of our efforts in the sustainability of materials and people. Let’s make it fashionable and good business for companies to display - and stand by - a Fair Trade or other responsible manufacturing label.
The mission of sustainability will fail if it only focuses on the use of eco-friendly materials without addressing the well being of the people who make the things we use.
OBJECT MEMORY
Our relationship with the furnishings we bring into our homes is an intimate one. Embedded in each piece of furniture are the many hands and lives that contribute to its existence.
In that way, the furniture itself contains its own ‘object-memory’.
I deeply believe that we have resonances with places and things, just as we do with people. When we speak of our ‘happy place’, it is the place where we are at ease, where we are most ourselves, where our soul feels nourished. With objects, there are many factors that draw us to one thing over another, some tangible and some based on a gut feeling.
The concept of object-memory has been front of mind for a number of years now. It is integrated in everything I do, from work with clients, to my wallpaper design, to the objects in my home. Pulling the curtain back on the story or our furniture production further opens up the conversation about the stories of the objects we live with, inherit, and create.