Manchester Wood Furniture

At Manchester Wood the environment matters, their goal is to create top quality furniture from beautiful American hardwoods with minimal impact on the environment. To meet this goal they use sustainable, eco friendly timber like white ash and soft maple. Their wood furniture uses hardwood lumber which is grown in sustainably managed forests in the Northeast by suppliers that meet strict State and National standards for forest management developed by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

Because they use solid wood in all their construction methods and American furniture, their wood products last for generations.
Manchester Wood is part of a family tradition that dates back to 1891. They have designed and produced quality, affordable, eco- friendly solid wood American furniture in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Adirondack foothills of New York for over 30 years.

Certified Wood

All of the lumber that they use to manufacture Manchester Wood furniture is made from wood that has been certified as environmentally friendly and sustainable (SFI-certified). They manufacture all of their furniture and accessories from eco friendly wood from sustainable Northeast hardwood forests which
is grown and harvested in accordance with certified standards. All of
the lumber they buy is certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative
(SFI). Strict SFI standards include auditable monitoring of timber/wood
flows, product labeling, and prohibition of any timber that is illegally
harvested.

Manchester Wood looks forward to the day when eco-friendly lumber is the
international standard for both the timber harvesting and wood
manufacturing industries.

Locally Sourced Materials

Part
of their philosophy at Manchester Wood involves the use of local
materials. At Manchester Wood, all of the hardwood they use for their
furniture comes from local forests across the Northeast. They are
conveniently situated between the forests of New York’s Adirondacks and
Vermont’s Green Mountains which provide much of their lumber. Using
local lumber not only supports the local timber industry, but also cuts
down on energy spent on transport. Local forests provide plenty of high
quality hardwood and even the slate they use comes from local quarries.
Buying their materials locally not only means customers can expect top
quality, but it also means that each piece of our furniture is filled
with the regional character of the Northeast.

American Forests

American-grown wood from sustainable Northeast forests are environmentally building material. Overall, US forests are healthy; while forests in other countries are disappearing, woodlands in America are actually expanding. Even though the population has grown over 165 percent since 1920, the US has approximately the same amount of forest land now as it did then. Currently, growth exceeds harvest by 47 percent. Wood furniture is commonly produced using illegal lumber unsustainably harvested from unhealthy forests. Manchester wood uses trees harvested from US forests. For every tree that is felled, six trees are planted. Other modern construction materials generate more pollution to manufacture and assemble while consuming more energy and relying on non-renewable natural resources.

Harvesting Lumber

Foresters use green techniques to determine when wood should be harvested to keep forests healthy and productive. A good example of such techniques is selective harvesting. Instead of clear-cutting patches of land single tree are harvested which mimics nature. Single trees or small groups of trees that die and fall, or are blown down by strong winds are also harvested. Such harvesting practices encourage new timber growth and biodiversity. Eco friendly harvesting techniques help forests to regenerate and renew themselves.

Manufacturing Practices

Sustainable
manufacturing practices include minimizing waste wood and
re-using byproducts (i.e. bark becomes mulch and trimmings are processed
into paper). Wood furniture manufacturers are becoming increasingly
efficient with the raw materials they use. Manchester Wood uses the
latest equipment to obtain the needed cuts from their wood while utilizing
the most material they can obtain from each board in order to minimize their impact on the environment.

For more information on Manchester Wood go to their website by clicking here.