Sustainable Wood Furniture | Environmental Impact | What Is Mindi Wood?

The main wood we use is Mindi, which grows fast and easily in certain parts of central Java. We currently use about 100m3 per annum. There is currently virtually no FSC-certified Mindi available. However it is important to us to continue using Mindi because it offers a high quality wood with low wastage levels; specifically the finished look which can be achieved is much less ‘flamey’ than teak or mahogany, and this is important to the look we are creating.

In October 2016, in order to get a better understanding of the provenance and sustainability of our wood, Hugh Ross visited the location where our main partner – Pondok Kayu Tropis (PKT) – sources their Mindi timber. This is near the town of Boyolali.

What we established was as follows:

1. The Mindi wood is grown at the edge of what can perhaps be best described as small farming plots. Mindi trees are used to help demarcate one plot from another. They provide a fast growing and tall screen, which can then be harvested when the farmer decides he needs an injection of capital.
2. The trees are not cut down until they are mature at 15-20 years old.
3. They are taken individually when they are ready, not as part of a clearance.
4. There is very little waste: any branches or small pieces of Mindi wood are all sold off.
5. The Mindi wood is then tracked right through the chain until it leaves on our container, to comply with the SVLK Legal Wood regulations. This is monitored by a local certification agency called Sucofindo.
6. The Mindi trees are replaced on a regular basis, whenever they have saplings available to fill the gaps left by the trees they have cut down, and the saplings pop up all over because birds eat and spread the seeds anyway.

It is therefore our assessment that this Mindi wood is being grown and harvested in a sustainable way, with minimal negative impact on the environment.

PKT have been working within the Indonesia Legal Wood system (SVLK) since 2012. They are now going through the first stages of getting certified as an FSC company.

We now have a second supplier of the Semarang range – the carpentry based company KWaS who are an existing FSC licensee, focussing on teak and mahogany. They have also agreed (in Oct 2016) to take the necessary steps to get their suppliers certified to supply FSC Mindi wood. This process is currently under way; it is hoped it will be concluded by the end of 2018.

All our other ranges (Jogya, Kartosuro, Bantul, Low Jepara) are produced by INORI and have now transitioned to 100% use of FSC-certified teak and mahogany.