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by LiveOAK Staff 
Designer Anthony Marschak elegantly combines function and form in this simple yet versatile piece. Use the Becca Stool it as...lets start with... a stool, with or without a cushion. Use it as an end table, or stack them to make a unique shelving unit. Made from fast-growing, rapidly renewable bamboo and with resource efficient molded ply construction you can feel good any way you choose to use it.
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First!
I bet you say that in bed, too, Aerron.
eco friendly means buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy…..
Yeah, thanks but I’d rather have my $12 Wal-Mart stool. I wouldn’t pay that price if it were made from ivory.
benji. ecofriendly doesn have to mean buying things all the time but it would seem that way.
there is a poem that i find rather amusing. Danny Chivers poem ‘Dont Buy It’ talks about how we seem to get it wrong…
“I’ve always been seen
As a little bit green
In my cosy, middle-class social scene
Ever since I made that lentil stew
For Abigail’s birthday do,
Wore Birkenstock’s to Brina’s wedding
And got those rainforest patterns for the children’s bedding.
My friends all think it’s nonsense
But I’m proud to be their conscience;
Their commitment may be scanty
But my bottles of Chianti
Ride the back seat of the Mazda to the bottle bank at Asda,
And the second home in Rome has such amazing double glazing!
But that young fellow on Newsnight
Keeps talking ‘bout the planet’s plight
And I get a niggling feeling I’m not doing this quite right:
Driving to the protests in the seven-seater,
Discussing climate change under the patio heater,
I turn on Radio 4
It’s “You and Yoursâ€
(Which I adore)
But they’re discussing what’s in store
For the planet, with Jude Law,
Whose made some film about a war,
And then they interview Al Gore
And I realise in an instant that I should be doing more.
Thank goodness “In-Style†magazine
Has a special pull-out section: 20 tips on going green.
And it turns out the solution
To global destitution,
Exponential air pollution,
Endless wars of retribution,
Isn’t global revolution,
Power devolution,
Wealth redistribution,
Or the long-overdue reform of some of our fundamentally compromised international institutions;
Don’t listen to “experts†who dare to proclaim
That our crazy mass consumption levels might just be to blame;
For everything you need to know
About economic justice, you can ask: Bono.
He knows the way out of this fix:
SHOPPING: it’s the new politics!
To halt our mad rush to consume our blissful way to eco-doom,
To build a world not based on greed for things that we don’t really need,
The answer is – you’ll never guess –
We’ll shop our way out of this mess!
Anyone who’s got the gumption
Can do ethical consumption,
And thus turn the global tables
Buying things with pretty labels
So now all my silk pyjamas
Come with shots of smiling farmers.
Our sound system’s been upgraded
But the box was fairly traded.
As I sit beside the hot tub to remove my sandals
I breathe the guilt-relieving perfume of organic scented candles…
They grew these pears with love and care, 5000 miles away
And I got these natural shampoos on the flight back from Bombay
The local shops are closing down
But there’s no need to panic;
That big new Sainsbury’s, out of town,
Does everything organic.
I’ve even managed to persuade my crazy uncle Rhys, he’s
Using eco-friendly bullets now to hunt endangered species
And as for the global warming warnings,
Here’s what I can do:
Plant a few plantations
For the carbon sequestration
(Based on flimsy calculations)
Strip the native vegetation,
Shift the local population
To some piece of desolation barely fit for habitation
And with misery and poverty “off-set†my CO2.
Now, please don’t think this poem’s unfair;
I’m not saying it’s wrong to care,
To think about the things you buy,
To ask who made them, how, and why;
But if you’re promised cheap salvation,
Easy wealth for every nation,
An end to global poverty,
Avert climate catastrophe,
“It’s easy – it will be enough
To simply buy more of our stuff!â€
Don’t buy it – try to understand
We need to change far more than just our washing powder brand.
The answers to our global woes
Won’t be found with shiny logos on a special aisle at Tesco’s.
We need to tackle head-on
Our rush to Consumageddon:
Leave the shopping in your trolley
And resist this global folly,
We’ll fight back! – we’ll all play a part,
There’s much to do; but here’s a start:
To keep humanity on the map
Please – just stop buying so much crap.”
peace love and tofu,
jessy
…Just realised that it was Gabriel that made the comment.
Sorry Benji
UNBELIVEABLE….
Bamboo is so cheap and it’s so easy to get and grow….
$490???????????
GET OVER YOURSELF!
This has to be the sickest, most obnoxious profit margin I have ever seen.
You should be ashamed of yourself for charging that much for Bamboo…it’s no wonder this world is so screwed up…
Nothing like capitalizing on our need and want for renewable resources!
Disgusting…
You’re just exploiting the Greeners and giving them a bad reputation and doing more to harm the Earth. Greed in one of its many forms.
and I suppose you are going to ship this eco-friendly bomboo over to the states in your eco-friendly jet plane and then ship it to me in your eco-friendly semi-truck right?
Hello, thanks for all the comments on my post, and thanks for the poem Jessy! I’m pumped so many people are so passionate about his topic, but I would like to chime in here because I strongly disagree with a number of you. First I want to clarify something. We are not selling anything. We write about products that we find cool, interesting, or useful that are in some capacity eco-friendly. We provide links in the posts to where you can buy them, however we don’t make any money when you buy these things, and we are not paid to feature them. We hope someday to make money on advertising, but it’s slow going right now.
How is this expensive bamboo piece of furniture “eco-friendly”? It is made from bamboo which is highly renewable. When you cut down a slow growing tree for wood, like a maple or an oak, it will take years to replace that tree. The rate at which we cut down trees to harvest wood is why forests are disappearing across the globe. Bamboo is not a tree, it is a species of grass that can grow to its full height in a few months. Some species can grow up to 4 feet in one day. This make it “Highly Renewable” and a more earth friendly source for building material than a slow growing tree.
I am not going to allege that buying one expensive stool is going to save the planet, but this is a better alternative than buying a similar piece of furniture made from a less renewable wood and finished with toxic chemicals. Sure there are more eco-friendly alternatives but let the person who make the “Perfect” ecological choice at every fork in the road throw the first stone. We are about presenting options so people can make “Greener” choices.
Now, I’d also like to disagree with the folks who are “shaming” the designer of this piece for charging $490. First of all, no one here, including myself knows what the profit margin is but from my experience it is probably smaller than you think. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that they are out to make a hefty profit, but I don’t believe they are exploiting anyone. You’ll see the same kind of prices if you go into any high end furniture store. I don’t want to get into a philosophical debate about the concept of capitalism, but most artisans and skilled craftsmen charge a premium price for their work. Now if they were going into 3rd world countries gouging needy people on clean drinking water, that would be a different story, but this is a luxury item that no one “needs”, so who is being exploited? If you are in the market for some high end artsy furniture why not buy this instead of something that is filled with chemicals and is going to contribute to the destruction of old growth forests? Honestly, I have not interest whether you buy this or not. I am thrilled that people want to seek out greener choices however.
Finally I’d like to say, we need idealists, but I don’t believe in the “all or nothing” approach. Clearly one of the most eco-friendly things we can do is reduce our consumption, however, I think there are a lot of people out there that are not willing to give up their way of life. At greenUPGRADER we like to provide options to everyone from the likes of Al Gore to baby seal hunters so they can make “Greener” choices. Some will make better choices than others but if everyone makes small changes, it will make a big impact.
Thanks, Matt
Bravo and well said Matt.
Matt,
Thank you for jumping in. The assumptions made by the previous posters are disturbing. For a product made in the USA with a pioneering material the price listed is not out of the normal range. and furniture not made in china actually has very slim margins. Bamboo in veneer form is not “cheap”. Also a well made classic piece will never be thrown out by the user but passed down or re-sold, and the molded method of construction is extremely waste efficient. The public will consume no matter what. why not provide a well made alternative crafted in our country.
Cheers.
Btw, if there’s someone who wants to buy, where & how he get the stuff? Thank you
Hi CoffeeBlast, if the product is available for sale you can click on the UPGRADE link in the upper right hand corner of the post. If it’s not available for sale that link will take you to where you can find more info. In this particular case the link will take you over to Design Public where it is for sale (http://designpublic.com/shop/modern-bamboo/2711).