Denfair is a design trade event that most recently took place at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre from June 2–4. Denfair aims to bring together a selection of the best in contemporary furniture & design, lighting, textile & soft furnishings, home product design and homewares.
One featured collaboration was between six designers and the American Hardwood Export Council and focused on the 'true environmental impact of design'.
Australian designers Adam Goodrum, Greg Natale, Anne-Claire Petre, Ben Percy and Todd Hammond along with New Zealander David Trubridge created seating from American cherry, tulipwood, red oak and thermally modified American ash.
The full environmental impact of each completed design was calculated from collected data on all inputs in terms of materials, energy usage, transport and wastage. From this information, AHEC is producing a profile for each design drawing on data from their Life Cycle Assessment research for 19 hardwood species. Life Cycle Assessment is a scientific tool that helps industry to establish environmental frameworks that have real meaning and assess true sustainability. The result will present the cradle-to-grave impact of creating each product across six categories. The most topical impact category is global warming potential (GWP), or carbon footprint.
For each design, AHEC also calculated how many seconds it would take for the wood used to make the piece to grow naturally in the US hardwood forest. The forest covers 120 million hectares. Hardwood trees are selectively harvested and replaced with new growth through natural regeneration. Regeneration outstrips harvest and this vast resource increases by 130 million cubic metres every year. AHEC has calculated that it would take a mere 2.2 seconds for all the wood used in the six Seed to Seat designs to grow in the US hardwood forest.
For more information and full environmental data visit www.seedtoseat.info Information about the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) at americanhardwood.org