Life On Earth
Mitigating and fighting climate change is about reducing CO₂ emissions, which (along with methane) represents ~90% of all greenhouse gases. Largely the result of burning fossil fuels to provide energy for transport, heating, electricity and industry, CO₂ emission effectively forms an insulation around the planet. Now as the Earth absorbs sunlight, the heat cannot easily pass back through the atmosphere, which keeps it around for longer. That means higher temperatures, which comes with disastrous consequences for life on Earth.
Smoke Stacks
At a government level, the solution involves shifting from a fossil fuel based economy toward a ‘bioeconomy’ (the sustainable production and conversion of biomass (plant or animal material), for a range of food, health, fibre and industrial products and energy).
Ethical Options
Sounds great, but a ‘burning’ question remains; what can we do, now, to help? As consumers, I think we can demand more transparency from companies and manufacturers, to help us make more informed choices about the products we buy. We expect government to enforce targets and tariffs, but it’s the consumers who choose to support greener alternatives. It’s the consumers who will enact the fastest change. Although paying the occasional extra premium for green may be considered a luxury, with wider uptake, ethical options will become more affordable.
Best Option?
There are still goods we need – or sometimes think we need – that cannot easily be made without some collateral damage. For others there are alternatives being developed, like replacing plastic packaging for recyclable or compostable materials. Certain materials can even be substituted with by-products from other industries. This fulfils a need as well as reducing unnecessary waste. Perhaps the best material on the planet, however, is wood.
European Forestry
The consumption of wood in Europe is supplied almost exclusively by European forests, which are subject to careful regulation. These forests continue to grow, having expanded 17.5 million hectares in the last 25 years, providing an abundance of fast growing timber. They play a key role in reducing carbon emissions, as the trees absorb atmospheric CO₂, acting as a ‘carbon sink’.
Using mature trees sustainably for wood products reduces emissions, both through the preservation of carbon inside the material itself, and by avoiding alternative CO₂-intensive materials.
In Europe, the volume of wood in use (and being processed) currently stores 38.2 million tonne equivalents of CO₂, making a key contribution to reducing levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Jali Materials
At Jali, we use moisture-resistant MDF to create our furniture. We finish it with a real Oak veneer or coat it with water-based paint. The MDF mostly contains wood chip waste from local mills. Therefore, it supports recycling and helps prevent from contributing to CO₂ emissions.
MDF also makes efficient use of natural resources. We process the wood chips by compressing them into a strong and versatile material and we can use 100% of the tree. As a result, nothing is wasted.
Because MDF reduces waste and uses resources efficiently, it is a sustainable and responsible material. It plays an important part in creating environmentally conscious furniture.
Optimisation
We CNC machine our MDF boards to create our required parts. We carefully nest each part to achieve the highest possible yield on our boards. As a result, we make the best use of every board and reduce waste.
Each part is unique because our customers can totally customise their furniture online. This may seem like a complex manufacturing challenge, however, it highlights one of Jali’s key strengths.
We combine the flexibility of bespoke production with mass manufacturing efficency through our award-winning technology. Instead of cutting one order at a time, we put all parts from current orders into a digital “pool”.
Our computer system continuously analyses this pool. It automatically sorts future boards to maximise material use. Every few seconds, it checks for new parts and amends the layout to improve efficiency.
After cutting, we sort the parts back into their individual order groups. This process allows us to deliver customised furniture while reducing waste and keeping production efficient.
CNC Board Nesting
This approach is central to Jali’s lean manufacturing standard. It allows customers to place orders on the Jali website to effectively drive the machines directly, with little to no human involvement in between. In general terms, mass production is considered the most efficient, but it is also more wasteful as it results in a large inventory that may not find an immediate buyer.
Since around 1995, Jali has adopted a manufacture-on-demand model which minimises wasted effort and maximises productivity, without limiting the bespoke product or service. We believe innovations of this nature will play a major role in making manufacturing a more planet-friendly enterprise.
Finally, what happens to the waste MDF at Jali? To ensure that not a joule of energy is wasted, all the offcut material is chipped, stored in a silo and burnt as needed. This heat is used to heat the Jali factory, the offices and the paint drier. Ultimately, no fossil fuels are burnt unnecessarily.
The Jali Factory
Customers can definitely buy with confidence that, as an innovative UK manufacturer of wood furniture products, Jali has an exemplary record of putting the planet first. But as the global issues have become increasingly prevalent, we’re asking ourselves what else we can do.
Clearly, every business must continually improve to lessen their environmental impact, and in some cases, make some fairly radical changes. Where this isn’t possible, we hope wealthier companies (and those already carbon neutral) will do more to become carbon positive – thus helping to balance the global scales.
