Meet the designer: Award-winning eco beds guru Warren Evans

Warren Evans has been making sustainable bedroom furniture for over 30 years and is the only furniture maker to be FSC certified in the UK, so he knows a thing or two about green living. Clare Saxon catches up with him to find out more about his eco friendly furniture.

Warren Evans’ beautiful bespoke bedroom furniture isn’t just a greenmystyle.com favourite. His work has been noticed by those high up in the industry, and last year he bagged three top green awards; the Observer Ethical Award, The Sunday Times Best Green Company Award and a BCE Award.

I chat to Warren to find out more about his sustainable handcrafted wooden beds and the future of sustainable wood resourcing.

How long have you been making these beautiful beds?

For over thirty years! When I was 17 I started out making furniture in a basement in Clerkenwell, and have always loved woodwork. It is something I love doing, which is evident in my designs.

How is your furniture sustainable?

Firstly, we always use pine wood, because it is well farmed and quick growing, and what we call ‘embodied energy’ which means there is more than enough to replace what is used. The idea of pine wood puts a lot of people off because they think of that nasty, shiny blonde pine that looks a bit cheap. We are well aware of this so we use a dark oak stain and other colours so the quality shows on the outside as well as on the inside.
What makes your beds so different?

We are the only furniture company to be FSC certified, for which we went to great lengths to achieve. Every single part of the process must be agreed with by the FSC, from a tiny piece of MDF to the source of pine. This means you can be sure you are getting a fully sustainable product. Even the nearby rivers must be completely uncontaminated, the pine must be farmed in a way that doesn’t disturb wildlife and local communities should never be displaced. We use only UK suppliers too.

We also pride ourselves on producing well-made products, in an extensive range at low prices and we have the best customer service possible.

How eco are your mattresses?

Well, we use organic materials, which also benefit the customer in other ways. For example, this cuts down on bed bugs and mites through the natural wool and fibres that are used. We also give end-of-line beds and mattresses to The Big Issue, and if homeless people want them, we give them away. I hope to work with homeless shelters more in the future.

How do you cut down on packaging?

We personally deliver all of our products, and use only blankets to protect the larger items which we obviously can then re-use. With mattresses they have to come packaged for hygiene reasons, but we always use recycled packaging, which we make sure is used again.

What do you think is the future of sustainable furniture?

If companies aim to make sustainable furniture profitable then they will survive. People are gradually realising that organic and sustainable products are generally better products, and our company in particular gives a better service on top of that.

Landfill and skips costs are wiped out when manufacturing ethically, because you are re-using wood. When not using chemical sprays, you actually save money too. Of course there is a long way to go, as people are only just wanting to eat organic food, but what we use outside of our bodies should be just as natural and pure, which is why I think the sustainable furniture industry can only grow.

Warren Evans