We recieved our business. They are the “Worlds Greenest Business Cards” from Traffic Design. Bernard Hellen made it possible for us. Here are the specs:

• uncoated FSC-certified stock
• 100% post-consumer waste paper
• Paper manufactured in Canada (small transportation footprint)
• FSC and EcoLogo certified
• printed Waterless with vegetable-based inks

If you would like to order some for you, please contact Bernard Hellen @trafficdesign at Traffic Design in Toronto.

Cheers, Hans

I visited the Socially Responsible Design Exhibit at the Toronto International Airport yesterday. It was great seeing what others are doing, some great ideas and some really neat other products that are manufactured in Canada.

A huge thank you to Lee, who is the curator for the art at the airport. She does a great job and is very passionate about representing Canada at the airport is great. “It is often the first and last impression of Canada for travellers.”

She also told me that Treehugger reported on the show and that our blocks are featured in their article. Thank You Treehugger.

(click on image to see the blog post at treehugger.com)

Photo: Shawnigan Lake Backroads http://www.snorrigunnarsson.com/

I just found this picture on flickr. The photographers comment was “I thought clear cutting was a thing of the past.” It is sad, but still there. Please help in making a difference. Start by buying FSC products, and stop buying Kimberly Clark products (Scotties, Kleenex, etc.)

That was a comment (*) left on a survey that we have on our webpage. I don’t know who left the comment, but I hope that you are coming back to our website to read this post.

Lately I have been receiving a lot of questions about the wood and why it is “recycled”. I’d like to provide you with a detailed explanation about the wood we use and where it comes from.

Currently we are receiving our wood from a large company called Eastwood Wood Specialties right here in St. Catharines. It is 100% postindustrial recycled waste material. This might sound like a scary term, but it simply means that we are buying the cut-away pieces of their manufacturing process‚Äô. The wood has never been used (which is what the industry calls “virgin lumber”). Usually these cut-offs would be ground down and mixed in with organic waste (composted). Ukoonto effectively saves all this wood from the waste stream and makes it into beautiful toys.

Why not FSC certified?

The FSC logo has become very popular amongst companies that produce wooden products or wood related products (ie: paper, cardboard). The logo ensures that the company uses wood (or wood fiber) from forests that are well managed. This ensures that trees are being replanted after they are cut down.

I would really love for Ukoonto to be able to use the FSC logo, but we will have to go through a long certification process. Since the wood that we receive is not specifically FSC certified, I am not certain if we could in fact receive the certification. I have talked to the owner of Eastwood Wood Specialties about this and he explained to me that the lumber that he deals with is all from within Ontario. The lumber might not be specifically FSC certified, but in order for a tree logger to be able to sell lumber and keep on selling it in the future here in Ontario, he has to be very careful to treat his forests well. No one can just cut down forests without replanting any trees and expect the business to be sustainable in the long run.

This makes a lot of sense to me, and I will in fact do more research where the wood comes from in the future. I would really like to do a trip up north and do some more research.

Wood vs. Plastic

The entire comment left by the mysterious person was: “Stop Global Warming; Stop Cutting Down the Trees and Plant More with UAVs.”

Let me compare wood and plastic, the two materials commonly used for toys.

Plastic for the main part is made from oil, which gets “split” into many different materials, such as gasoline, diesel, tar and plastic. Oil requires a lot of energy to be pumped out of the earth, then we use large tankers to ship it to China, where it gets refined (which creates the plastic), then we use the plastic to make toys, and ship it once again to North America. All of these processes require a lot of energy and subsequently release a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. We end up with a toy that has done a lot of damage to the environment and depending on the composition of the plastic can be very dangerous to our children‚Äôs health (just check out the many problems with Bisphenol-A). Plastic toys generally break a lot faster and after they are broken and disposed, will take decades, if not centuries, to decay.

Wood is a regenerative material. Trees bind the carbon out of the CO2 in the air through a chemical process called photosynthesis and release the oxygen of the CO2. This process effectively undoes some of the damage that cars and industry do to the environment. Wood (especially the one we choose: hard maple) is very sturdy and lasts for a long time. Most people will actually hand on their wooden building blocks and toys to their own children, and children’s children. If someone happens to throw the toy away, it will simply decompose within a few years.

Parents will always buy toys for their children, but Ukoonto encourages parents to get healthy wooden toys, if possible even locally made.

“Stop Global Warming”. We are working on it; please just don’t point fingers at us. We are doing our part to create healthy toys that are safe for our children and good for the planet.

___________________

Author: Hans Eich (owner of Ukoonto)
(* The entire comment was: “Stop Global Warming; Stop Cutting Down the Trees and Plant More with UAVs.”)

photo credits: Lizard, FSC logo, lumber

Hi everyone.

It’s Monday February 4th, 2008, I’m picking up the lumber for the production of the toys. The lumber comes from Upper Canada Forest Products. I’m going to pick up a pretty big amount of Maple right now.

Cheers, Hans