Island Collection - Environmental Information

VOC is short for Volatile Organic Compounds. These are organic compounds with high enough vapor pressure under normal conditions to significantly vaporize and enter the atmosphere. The most common VOC is methane, the primary component of natural gas and also released in agriculture and when burning biomass such as wood. Common artificial VOCs include paint thinners, dry cleaning solvents and gasoline. Even trees are an important biological source of VOC.

Many VOCs are found around the house, such as the solvents used in wood preservatives, paint, varnishes and chemicals for sealing and finishing home interiors. Some furnishings, carpet backing, plastics and cosmetics also contribute to sick building syndrome because of their high vapor pressure.

As these products are being used or when components oxidize, vapors of VOCs escape into the ambient air and contribute to indoor and outdoor air pollution. Many VOCs, especially methane, are greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency has found concentrations of VOCs in indoor air to be 2 to 5 times greater than in outdoor air.

Realizing a need to reverse the negative environmental impact of many VOCs, local, regional and state governments in many countries have, during the past several years, put in place ever more stringent regulatioRealizing a need to reverse the negative environmental impact of many VOCs, local, regional and state governments in many countries have, during the past several years, put in place ever more stringent regulations limiting VOC emissions. In the US, California has been on the forefront requiring significantly lower levels of VOC in many products. Many consumers, some with allergies for example, have also helped advance this change in attitudes among manufacturers of products containing VOC.

The “Island Collection” offThe “Island Collection” offers the marketplace a very unique look. The look is created by using very unique teak logs harvested like no other. These old teak logs were cut down and abandoned in the jungle up to 100 years ago. These rustic logs were found to be undesirable at the time because they had so much character and variation. Today this rich rustic character is in high demand and very hard to obtain. Since these logs where left in the thick jungle where vehicle access is impossible, local natives use well trained elephants to enter these thick jungles and bring out the logs. Since these jungles are the elephant’s natural habitat they are very comfortable navigating these giant ancient logs out of the jungle. Once they are out of the jungle the elephants carry the logs to rivers where the logs are transported to the saw mill. This could possibly be the most environmental friendly way to produce lumber. No new trees are cut and no fossil fuels are used to harvest this beautiful material. Because we use elephants in place of logging trucks to recover these logs the natural habitat where they laid for up to 100 years remains undamaged by man. What was once considered to be trash has now become treasure.

Here you can see the density of the jungle where these teak logs lay. It would be impossible for commercial vehicles to enter these areas without doing damage to the habitat.

Elephants bringing the recovered logs from the dense jungle. Since this is natural elephant habitat no damage is done to these areas during log recovery.

Reclaimed teak beams and house posts. This material is removed from old buildings and homes in Southeast Asia.logs the “Island Collection” also uses lumber from beams and posts reclaimed from old buildings and houses in Southeast Asia. This material appears to look old and unusable on the outside however because of teaks natural ability to resist the elements of nature it is fresh and new on the inside. By using these reclaimed logs we are able to save existing trees while producing an exceptionally beautiful floor rich in color and character.

These photos show reclaimed teak beams and house posts. This material is removed from old buildings and homes in Southeast Asia.

As you can see once the reclaimed material is milled the material inside is beautiful and well preserved.