We did a series of posts on how to evaluate a quality sofa about two years ago, and judging from the questions we get from people, we thought it might be time to re-post these! The 3-part series is divided into evaluating a sofa frame, cushioning materials and fabric (of course!). Herewith, the first post: …
In a post dated March20, 2015, the EWG’s Enviroblog had a list of five sofas without flame-retardants that you can buy right now. It is, of course, wonderful that the State of California has revised their antique law requiring flame-retardants in furniture, but shame on the Environmental Working Group for failing to point out the …
In 2012, Greenpeace analyzed a total of 141 items of clothing, and found high levels of phthalates in four of the garments and NPE’s in 89 garments – in quantities as high as 1,000 ppm – as well as a variety of other toxic chemicals. Phthalates and NPE’s are among the chemicals known as …
I’m becoming anxious about climate change, and in particular what that means to my life. We humans are still in denial about climate change, and even though I’ve been told that climate change could destroy ecosystems and economies within a generation – I like to look at the little changes that overpopulation and climate change …
I love my down jacket – especially now in the cold and dark – it’s light and warm, both really important considerations whenever I’m stuffing a backpack for a few nights in the backcountry (which, o.k., I admit doesn’t happen often) – or even when I’m walking the neighborhood. Nothing is quite as good as …
Four years ago we published a list of gift suggestions. We think it’s still a pretty good list: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. Oren Arnold Best holiday wishes to all! We’ll …
We live in an environment that is full of chemicals – some which are bad for us and yet are completely natural. We don’t subscribe to the notion that man-made is absolutely bad and natural is absolutely good – botulism is completely natural and can kill you just as dead. But sometimes we adopt products …
The use of plastic bags is still bugging me. We use 1,000,000 plastic bags on this Earth every minute. According to The Earth Policy Institute, the plastic bag was invented in Sweden in 1962. The single-use plastic shopping bag was first popularized by Mobil Oil in the 1970s in an attempt to increase its market …
Time sure flies doesn’t it? I’ve been promising to reiterate the effects the textile industry has on climate change, so I’m re-posting a blog post we published in 2013: In considering fabric for your sofa, let’s be altruistic and look at the impact textile production has on global climate change. (I only use the term …
How does this topic relate to the textile industry? Well, it just so happens that the textile industry is huge – and a huge producer of greenhouse gasses. The textile industry, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is the 5th largest contributor to CO2 emissions in the United States, after primary metals, nonmetallic mineral products, …
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