National Hardwood Magazine - July 2012

AHEC Update Putting

AHEC Update Putting “Life Cycle Data” To Real World Use: AHEC Teams Up With The UK’s Royal College Of Art To Sponsor An Environmentally Focused Exhibit at the 2012 London Design Festival The American Hardwood Export Council will collaborate with product design students at the Royal College of Art in London to produce and exhibit chairs during the London Design Festival later this year. Under the leadership of tutors and well-known designers Sebastian Wrong and Harry Richardson, the students have been given the challenge of designing a functional chair or seat in an American Hardwood of their choice. The designs will be developed into working prototypes with the help of Benchmark, internationally renowned for its craftsmanship in wood. Education and research provides a unique element to the project because AHEC is using, for the first time, its ground-breaking Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research to help the students produce detailed Life Cycle impacts for their designs. Each chosen prototype will be environmentally profiled using an LCA modeling system developed for AHEC by sustainability experts, PE International. AHEC is in the process of producing the first-ever Environmental Product Declaration for American Hardwood lumber and veneer; it is this data that will be used by the students to build a full “cradle-to-grave” impact for their designs. According to Sebastian Wrong, the project “offers a pioneering opportunity for students to create designs within the context of a stark reality.” His co-tutor Harry Richardson added, “it is not only a case of designing a chair that will survive physically far into the future, it is also to produce a chair whose design will remain relevant far into the future.” David Venables, AHEC’s European Director who developed the idea for the project with Sebastian Wrong, says, “We are so excited to be working with students from the RCA. We can’t wait to see new talent emerge and have an opportunity to show them what a great design material Hardwood is. The fact they can also see and understand the full environmen- by MICHAEL SNOW Executive Director American Hardwood Export Council Washington, D.C. 703-435-2900 www.americanhardwood.org tal impact of their design gives this collaboration extra relevance to today’s world and sets it apart from other student design projects.” AHEC has earned a unique reputation in the international design community for its creative promotion of Hardwood, and for having hosted earlier high-profile projects in conjunction with major architectural and design leaders such as David Adjaye, Matteo Thun, Sou Fujimoto, Arup and Amanda Levete. But now its attention has turned to the potential stars of the future with a unique and ground-breaking project for students. The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) is the leading international trade association for the U.S. Hardwood industry, representing the committed exporters among U.S. Hardwood companies and all major U.S. Hardwood product trade associations. AHEC’s member companies service the growing global demand for U.S. Hardwood and represent the full range of Hardwood products. AHEC maintains offices in Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Mexico, in addition to its Reston, Virginia headquarters, to serve the needs of the global community. For additional information on AHEC and our programs, as well as detailed information on the AHEC Life Cycle Assessment project for U.S. Hardwoods, please contact AHEC by phone at 703/435-2900, or consult our web site at www.americanhardwood.org. 14 Hardwoods Have Versatility

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