As a teak furniture manufacturer, we at Arthur Lauer feel a responsibility, in fact we always have, to contribute to the green movement through clean, sustainable practices. At the risk of tooting our own horn, here are some of the ways in which we’re green.

Sustainable teak: The teak we use in our furniture construction is harvested using careful land management practices and responsible replanting techniques.

The benefits of wood:

1. While the raw materials for other products (aluminum, stainless steel, etc.) must be fabricated using energy-intensive and chemical-laden processes, our primary raw material (teak) grows naturally with no need for energy input.
2. Once the useful life of a wood piece of furniture is at its end, the wood will biodegrade in the landfill.

The benefits of teak: With its high durability (25+ years), teak furniture will last decades longer than furniture made from other woods. Consequently, fewer trees will be used as it will need to be replenished much less frequently. Further, although teak furniture is biodegradable, it will be decades before it even needs to be thrown out and end up in a landfill.

Our Cabot stain: The Cabot stain that we use is water based, cleans up with soap and water, and is VOC compliant.

U.S. Made: Our competitors ship their teak furniture from overseas to the U.S. partially assembled, which means that boats are wasting much fuel by (i) carrying air (the space between parts) across the ocean and (ii) shipping more container-loads than necessary because of this inefficient use of space. Further, the more ships used by our competitors, the more air and water pollution they cause to the environment. Arthur Lauer, on the other hand, manufactures its furniture in the United States. Consequently, we ship cut lumber from overseas, which can be packed incredibly efficiently (with little to no space between the pieces) given its regular, square dimensions.

Waste management: According to a waste management company we hired, through our current recycling program we divert more than 87% of our waste away from landfills each year – equating to over 237 tons and 1,785 cubic yards of waste that is either being recycled or reused.

Clean waste: Most of what little waste we do produce is environmentally friendly saw dust, which is primarily hauled away and used for horse bedding. We do not produce any metal shavings or toxic chemicals.