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We’ll be having a launch party for the Reee Chair on September 10, from 6.30 until 9.00 pm in central London. This is our chance to thank the many organisations that have helped us to bring this new product to the market, since we started planning it in 2006, and show the finished product to our customers, press and partners.
Reee Chair
London Interiors Magazine has made its June 08 edition into the “Eco Issue” and they have profiled Pli and the Reee Chair.
If you’re lucky enough to live in Chelsea, Battersea, Islington, West Hampstead, Greenwich, Clerkenwell or Docklands you might receive a copy through your door soon. You can subscribe or download past editions of the magazine from the website (click the cover image).
The text of the article on our chair is here…
The ubiquitous Treehugger has invited Jerry Stifelman to write more on green marketing and how we are certainly not going to save the world one cliché at a time. His suggestions are wise and succinct, boiling down more or less to ‘it’s the product, stupid’. If ‘green’ messages are going to work in mainstream markets they must finally advertise products that are good stuff as well as good thoughts.
The winners of the Observer ethical awards seem to bear out this simple truth. Finisterre, the ethical fashion category winner, is a great little company that stands out for me for its customer service and product quality. I bought one of their jackets last year and I soon forgot that their fibres are recycled and their suppliers fair.
Natural Collection, the winning online retailer (which does not, unfortunately, sell furniture) commented at the 2006 awards that they already have the ‘green’ customer’s attention: their website is aimed at mainstream customers with a green interest.
All this good sense brings me back to Pli’s principle: we don’t like ‘green’, we like ‘transparent‘. After an enjoyable day answering tough questions from potential retailers, I’m learning to keep the conversation focused on the benefits for the customer, not so much of the big picture stuff. Nobody’s going to kid them into selling something their customers don’t need. Why should they?
When researching eco-friendly consumer markets, it’s tough trying to find a balance between the opinions and ideas of enthusiasts, sceptics and the rest of us. The BBC News site has started to aggregate its consumer and industry environmental news into a section called the Green Room.
The Grass cabinet had a write up in this weekend’s Sunday Times Home section.
The green room
Not many cabinets can take all your entertainment kit, including cables, or have hinges that allow the doors to open 170 degrees. This one can, and it’s ecofriendly, too. Made from bamboo, with a wheat strawboard backing – both sustainable resources – it contains neither wood nor formaldehyde and uses low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) glues and binders.
Grass cabinet, W120cm x H57cm x D42cm, £499, from Pli Design;
020 8670 6857,www.plidesign.co.uk
Sian Berry, the Green Party’s candidate for Mayor of London in this year’s election, visited Pli’s workshop on 17 January to discuss sustainable manufacturing opportunities and small business development for London enterprises.
Sian was interviewed here by BBC London news and she has written about her reflections on her visit in the New Statesman magazine.
Grand Designs Magazine has interviewed Christopher Pett from Pli to discuss sustainable design in their pull-out eco supplement.
The Telegraph Magazine has interviewed Christopher Pett from Pli to discuss bamboo as a sustainable material in contemporary furniture.
The Observer Magazine’s Lucy Siegle has picked the Reee® chair to top the Green Gauge of this month’s ethical living stories.
Living Etc included Pli’s Hoop table in their bamboo special.
BBC2’s Home series on interior design featured an interview with Pli’s owner Christopher Pett. It’s truly amazing how many people caught it - thanks for the kind comments.
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