Animals in Art and Office Furniture

Are you a dog person or a cat person? Maybe your best friend is a fish or a bird? Or maybe you’re like me, and you love to see wildlife roaming free in a natural habitat or lovingly and responsibly cared for in an agricultural setting, but that’s as close as you want to get, ha!

Let’s face it – the unethical sourcing of raw materials and detrimental manufacturing practices has created a global crisis for our environment and our animal friends. That’s the exciting thing about working in the contract furniture industry. Many manufacturers are demonstrating a commitment to providing innovative, high-quality, ergonomically-friendly, and competitively-priced workplace furniture solutions that are created with an eye toward stewarding the environment and protecting wildlife.

That’s why we chose to highlight local artists who feature animals as the primary subjects of their work for our October 4-6 Lancaster First Friday and ArtWalk weekend “Animals in Art” event. That’s also why we are partnering with Humanscale – a manufacturer of office furniture with an emphasis on sustainability and ergonomics – to give ArtWalk and First Friday guests the chance to learn more about how manufacturing can have a net positive impact on people and the planet, while still providing affordable, attractive, and comfortable products.

For example, Humanscale recently released the first chair made with recycled fishing nets, which is the most harmful type of ocean plastic because the nets can “ghost fish,” posing a long-term threat to marine life that may get caught in the nets. The Smart Ocean task chair is made from plastic pellets cut from fishing nets collected and recycled in coastal communities in Chile. In addition to incorporating recycled plastic into the make-up of the chair, the Smart Ocean chair is Living Product-Certified, which means it meets the most rigorous sustainable manufacturing criteria.

Humanscale has also partnered with other manufacturers from across industry lines to launch the NextWave Initiative, which is working to create a distribution web that supports reusing plastic before it ever makes it to the ocean, in the first place. Additional efforts to protect wildlife include Humanscale’s ongoing support of the World Wildlife Fund.

We’ll have a Smart Ocean chair and other Humanscale products available to try at Lancaster First Friday and ArtWalk. We will also be featuring work by the following extraordinary local artists:

• Amy Stauffer, Wildlife Scratchboard and Oil Artist
• Michelle Miller, Illustrator and Pet Portrait Artist
• Kitty Town Coffee, Local Coffee Roaster that Names All of their Original Coffees after Cats

We hope you can make it to our showroom for this fun, family-friendly event. Learn more about the event, including the schedule, ON OUR WEBSITE.

Here’s to making a positive impact on the environment and our animal friends with our furniture and art purchases!

– Audrey from Benjamin Roberts