Founded in 2003, Greener Lifestyles is the brainchild of three friends looking to create a business vehicle that would express their social and environmental values. Along with a line of chemical-free furniture that uses all-natural materials such as latex, organic cotton, certified wood, and hemp, Greener Lifestyles retail store in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood features art from local artists, eco-yoga mats, bamboo kitchen ware, color consultation, and interior design consulting.
SustainLane: How did you get started?
Federico Alvarez: There are three of us involved, Aimee Robinson, Alicia Silva, and myself. We’ve been close friends for a long period of time. We knew we wanted to work together.
Alicia Silva: We really wanted to do something that would help people live a true quality of life. It was very clear we all had similar approaches. We couldn’t do a business that didn’t have our passion.
SL: What are your backgrounds?
FA: Amy put together a lot of the business—she’s like the CEO. Alicia is an architect and an interior designer. I had a background in design and advertising.
SL: How did you decide to retail and design environmentally friendly furniture?
AS: We realized there was no furniture that was made with natural materials. We realized we had a good niche market that we could work on, and that would fulfill our mission.
FA: Basically, the idea was to get away from polyurethane. That was one of the main concerns—to reduce petroleum-based products in our lines. Reduce the use of toxic fibers and fire retardants and that type of stuff. We started using natural latex rubber for the seat and back. We started using sustainable fabrics. Those were really hard to find. We settled on a nice mix of hemp and organic cotton. We started out with one color, and now we’re expanding the color scheme. Then we wanted to use nontoxic glues, water-based. We use a small layer of wool as a natural fire retardant. Our furniture does not off-gas. It’s built to last, that was another thing—we wanted to build furniture that could last more than 20 years.
SL: Was it hard starting out?
FA: Yes. We didn’t realize it was going to be effective until recently. Now we’re seeing the fruits of the work. For a long time, we weren’t sure it was going to work. We didn’t have the resources to do a big campaign and talk about our business. We had to work it slowly.
SL: Describe the furniture you design.
AS: We wanted to create a line with contemporary lines. We’re young and we like contemporary design. Our sizes are not too big or small. They’re what we call “loft” sizes.
SL: How do you manufacture your furniture?
FA: We design our furniture and have a partner that manufactures it. When oil prices went high, the company owner called us and said, “We have to admit that you guys were visionary on this type of stuff—you were right to switch to other ways of building furniture.”
SL: What are you working on now?
AS: We’re starting to introduce our own line of fabrics, which are 35 percent organic cotton and 65 percent organic hemp, with low-impact dyes and summer-bright colors. They’re vegetal dyes; a German company does the dyes. Researching has been amazing, and hooking up to the right companies is amazing. I love finding the people who are really committed.
SL: What’s most inspirational to you?
AS: We see that there’s a growing market that are really happy to find us. And people are awakening to the fact that we have the power to change the marketplace, for a better quality of life. We get orders from all over. People know they can change the marketplace just by choosing better things—by choosing design for life rather than design for death.