Today my guest is Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza. They focuse exclusively on creating sofas and upholstered furniture made with organic, certified and natural materials. We’ll be talking about natural upholstered furniture, how it is made, fire retardants, and new regulations in California for upholstered furniture. Ecobalanza is the result of “an”obsessive effort to create the perfect sofa… one that is truly non-toxic: organic materials + true artisan crafted + socially responsible sources + comfortable + beautiful + durable.” Over the past 10 years, Aimee has researched materials and created a vertical supply chain where each material can be easily traced to its origin and producer and, when it comes to textiles, knowledge of all critical third party certifications and origins is key. A background in political science and social change plays a significant role in the commitment to work directly with women, farmers and artisans, and find ways to collaborate towards a more responsible and clean economy. www.debralynndadd.com/debras-list/ecobalanza

 

 

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Creating the Perfect Organic Sofa

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Aimee Robinson

Date of Broadcast: February 18, 2014

DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to live toxic-free.

And that’s not being affected by toxic chemicals, not that we could be next to them and not have them cause danger to us, but by understanding how to choose products that don’t have toxic chemicals, how to do things to help our body better withstand those toxic chemical exposures that we have. We talk to people who are making products, choosing products, selling products, regulating products, all kinds of everybody who has anything to do with being toxic-free on this show.

Today is—what’s the date today—Tuesday, February 18th 2014. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. And today we’re going to be talking about sofas. Sofas have been in the news for quite a while because there’s been a lot of talk about fire retardants on sofas. There are some things going on in the state of California about new regulations to do with fire retardants. And there are some small manufacturers around the country who are making sofas without fire retardants out of natural materials.

And so, today, I’m going to be talking with Aimee Robinson. She’s the Founder of and Owner of EcoBalanza.

That’s in Seattle. And they focus exclusively on creating sofas and upholstered furniture made of organic certified and natural materials. Aimee set out to search for the perfect organic sofa and achieved that. She’s going to tell us about that.

Hi Aimee.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Hi Debra. How are you?

DEBRA: I’m good. Before we go on, I just want to say that if any of you are listening to this show every day, we did have Aimee on a couple of weeks ago, but that show got interrupted by an ice storm. So we’re just starting over again as if Aimee was not on before and this is the show!

Aimee, thank you for being here. First, tell us about your background. How did you get from being wherever you were before you decided to make sofas? And why did you decide to make a non-toxic sofa? How did that happen?

AIMEE ROBINSON: I started by having a retail store that offered home furnishings. And so while I was doing that, I started researching. I fell in love with sofas because it was one of the things that we carried. But it still wasn’t perfect enough. And so it was a combination of researching […], learning more about […] conventional sofas, and then trying to find a way to create one that was completely as clean as possible, as non-toxic as possible while made […] beautiful.

So, once we started finding the materials—because we wanted to work with local suppliers directly and with small businesses and farms, I started working with a woman who was passionate about wool, and one thing led to another in terms of procuring especially with the materials and where they came from and how clean they were or not. I’m so sorry, I’m sort of a little scattered today.

DEBRA: It’s okay.

AIMEE ROBINSON: But yeah, we work with the design and the materials, yes.

DEBRA: Good! Tell us what made you interested in doing it without toxic chemicals in the first place. Why did you open a green store?

AIMEE ROBINSON: I did this with a partner. And we were looking to be able to offer things that were non-toxic.

She was into [inaudible 04:28]. I was into the social justice and the trade. And the combination of both was being able to offer things for the home that were responsibly sourced and that were cleaned and that created healthy environments.

Since we spend so much time indoors, especially in this type of a country where we’re inside all the time, we started looking at everything that’s in the house and people getting sick—so anywhere from what flooring, paint, furniture, everything we have in the house that being there so long and overexposed [inaudible 05:05].

People are getting sick. Everybody is getting sick […] And houses are very sealed, especially in certain types of countries. So no air circulation, no natural light, toxic materials, toxic carpets. It was kind of being able to provide all those, being able to support people in having a solutions and options for a healthy home.

DEBRA: Did you have a personal experience about that or did you know somebody? What made you aware of the issue?

AIMEE ROBINSON: It was mostly research—mostly research, I would say. I’m learning about the impact in a lot of other people.

I mean, one is leather. People, especially in certain places in the world, who work with leather […] are exposed to chromium. There’s a high mortality rate in young people because of that, because of cancer. It’s caused by the chemicals that are used to produce leather […]

And people not knowing that, [inaudible 06:24]. Yeah, there are people buying them because of them, because of those things that are in there. It’s a super toxic kind of industry. It’s chemically intensive, [inaudible 06:42]. So it’s polluting, it clings in the house. There are so many problems with it.

And once you start getting into every single thing that’s in your house, you start learning that it’s a time bomb.

DEBRA: It is! Yeah, it is. And there are different levels. It’s good that you’re looking all through—later on in the show, I want to talk about your work with your supply chain. But for right now, I just wanted to make note that there are different levels of looking at this. And the easiest part—and this isn’t even easy—is to just look at what is the exposure of the toxic chemical to the consumer as they’re using it.

But if you start looking back through what’s called the supply chain, then you get to things like, “Well, are the workers dying because this product is being made?” like you were talking about. And that’s a lot of research. I admire it highly that you’re doing that and looking that deeply at things. We do need to be considering what are the effects of our actions.

It’s not just what’s the effect on us, but it’s the effect on the workers and the environment and everything. That’s the ultimate things that we need to be looking at in terms of if we’re to live toxic-free would be to be free of toxic chemicals all the way down the line, to be free of toxic chemicals all throughout the environment and for all people. That would be the ultimate goal with that.

AIMEE ROBINSON: And one thing that you noted is […] everything is interconnected. It’s drinking polluted water. It goes up, and it still comes down through rain.

DEBRA: That’s right. It’s all connected.

AIMEE ROBINSON: So there’s not a boundary or nothing that will keep you from [inaudible 08:39] but that does not mean that it’s not coming back to us in so many other ways. So it’s all connected.

And I know that, initially, what’s our first area of influence? Of course, our personal life, our families, our homes.

And so that’s the first reason I found that people are concerned about finding non-toxic options. But it is essential to consider all the different aspects because it does have an impact whether you like it or not. We can’t really see it…

DEBRA: I completely agree, I completely agree. I completely agree. There is no “away” to send the toxic waste.

So we do need to be looking at it.

We need to take a break. When we come back, we’ll talk more about sofas with Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And we’ll be right back!

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And my guest today is Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza where they focus exclusively on creating sofas and upholstery furniture made with organic certified and natural materials.

Aimee, let’s talk about what is toxic about a sofa. And I know that you’re constructing sofas all the time. So take us through how a sofa is constructed and different toxic chemicals that are encountered in the materials in a sofa.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Well, one thing that have been done before is that a sofa […] has to be certified at passing the fire retardant law. And so the chemicals are all throughout the sofa. The fabric, the battings, the foams, everything has a fire treatment. And on top of it, it’s synthetic, so it’s petrochemical as well. So everything in it is non-biodegradable and potentially toxic.

DEBRA: And some of the materials that are used, like particularly, I want to mention polyurethane foam, which is extremely flammable. It’s been called solid gasoline. I mean it’s basically 100% crude oil which is very flammable.

And then they put these toxic fire retardants on it in order to pass the fire retardant test.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yes.

DEBRA: Also other things that could be used in a sofa could be adhesives which are toxic. But basically, I think that the basic thing is the synthetic materials plus all these toxic fire retardants.

AIMEE ROBINSON: And formaldehyde as well. So [inaudible 11:42] that are also toxic. They concentrate in the system over time. These particles that decompose when they break down, and you’re breathing them. And so there’s lots of […] toxicity in sofa.

DEBRA: If you have a stain-resistant finish or a water-repellent finish on a sofa, that is made from a formaldehyde resin that continues to outgas formaldehyde as you’re sitting on it. As you sit on it, it actually breaks it down and has it release formaldehyde.

So, this is what people across the country are sitting on and what babies are sitting on and what children are sitting on. And these toxic chemicals can cause a variety of health problems. It’s just amazing how toxic these are.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Allergies, neurological problems, there are all kinds of side effects—some are directly linked, some are not so directly linked. But basically, your immune system is having to fight all the time, all the time. And so, people leave themselves depleted. And in conjunction with other lifestyle things, it can be devastating […]

DEBRA: It’s hard to talk about this stuff. During the break, my producer wrote—I had a little chat with the producer—and he said the doctor of his wife read my book. She tossed out all her plastic cookware and switched to non-toxic cleaning supplies.

Once you start learning where these toxic chemicals are—I mean, when I started learning them, I thought, “Well, I don’t want this. Isn’t there some alternative?” And I started looking for alternatives.

So now you’ve provided an alternative to these toxic sofas.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Well, I just want to mention one thing that I thought about. Talking about the supply chain, [inaudible 13:50], we were talking about that, […] I think this is the part that’s really overwhelming for people. You have to research so much behind any product because there’s a lot of greenwashing happening.

There are a lot of green claims. You don’t know who made it, how they made it and what’s really in it and how it’s coming to you. It gets touted as “green” when, sometimes, it’s not. So that can be so daunting for people to even trust what they’re reading. And I find that a lot of people do get overwhelmed with that because […] it’s like going down the rabbit hole. You never know where you’re going to come out with everything that goes there.

DEBRA: I agree, I agree. So this is a reason why I have people like you on this show. There are some manufacturers who know what’s in their products.

I mean, I’ve been doing this research for more than 30 years. And a lot of people don’t even know what their materials are. You can ask the salesperson or you can even ask the manufacturer, and they just don’t know.

But somebody like Aimee here has done a tremendous amount of research. And so she knows what is in her product. And she has been very careful all the way down the line.

So, we need to go to break pretty soon, but let’s start just talking about the individual materials that you use. Let’s start with the covers. Tell us about the cover fabric.

AIMEE ROBINSON: The fabric that I chose to work with, almost all of them are either natural fibers or certified in some ways. So there are different types of certification. And it’s important that we look for fabrics that has some sort of third party certification where they test what the residual chemicals in the products are.

The textile industry is also very, very chemically intensive. Making fabric is really toxic. And so you want to make sure that there’s that third party certification because, that way, you know that if there’s any chemicals or heavy metals or anything that was used, it’s not at a level that may affect you. Fabrics are very toxic. So we need make sure of that.

Natural fibers breathe. They don’t hold odors. There are all these wonderful features about natural fibers. And there’s also those dyed with safe dyes, they’re treated and processed as cleanly as possible. Then you have one more level [inaudible 16:40] of the fabric that you have on.

So, certifications like EcoTex. GOTS is another. GOTS is really good. It stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard. The other one is…

DEBRA: Well, you can think during the break. You can think of that during the break. We’re talking about sofas, natural sofas, organic sofas with my guest, Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza. That’s EcoBalanza.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. We’ll be back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza where they make sofas and upholstered furniture with organic certified and natural materials.

So, before the break, Aimee, we were talking about certification for fabrics. You want to give us those names again and tell us something about the certifications?

AIMEE ROBINSON: So there are several. One is the highest one. It’s the Global Organic Textile Standard. The acronym is GOTS. And that one looks at the whole cycle. It looks at the material, […], the water treatment. It looks at the environmental impact. And also, they’re testing for the post-production (It’s probably to make sure the fabric is safe […]).

There’s the EcoTex Certification. They test for—that one just looks at the end product. They test for residual chemicals. There’s [inaudible 18:34] that also looks at the production cycle.

But the main ones would be EcoText and GOTS.

DEBRA: Those are the ones that I’ve seen most frequently. And one thing that I want to point out is that GOTS does have two certifications—one is for the fabric itself, and the other is for the fiber. Isn’t that right? There are two ways that it certifies?

AIMEE ROBINSON: I didn’t hear you, I’m sorry.

DEBRA: What I said was isn’t there are two ways that GOT certifies, one is to certify the fiber, and the other is to certify the fabric?

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yes.

DEBRA: You could see something that says “certified organic cotton,” that means that the fiber is certified organic. You need to look for a certification that says “certified organic fabric,” and that would be that the whole process is organic and that there are no other toxic chemicals, that the whole process from beginning to end is organic.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yes, exactly.

DEBRA: So tell us what other materials you use to make your sofas.

AIMEE ROBINSON: We also use organic cotton batting that’s US-grown. We buy that directly from the growers in the US. The conventional cotton, it’s sprayed with pesticides [inaudible 20:09] That’s another material.

And then we also use certified organic cotton as the first covers on the sofa. That’s underneath the final fabric.

It’s the [inaudible 20:36] fabric. And I chose natural fibers [inaudible 20:38].

And then, what else do we use? We use Global Organic Latex Standard certified latex [inaudible 20:49]. And that one is kind of the equivalent of the GOTS certification with the latex. There’s a lot of [inaudible 21:02] latex as well, so we need to make sure [inaudible 21:05] closest way to monitor that something is really what they say it is.

DEBRA: Yes. So if you see those certifications, then you know that these third party organizations have checked it out and that those are more trustworthy than if you just see a material that just says “wool” or anything that’s a natural fiber. There’s a lot of things that could be going into fabrics and batting. And these certifications tell you that they’re as clean as exists [inaudible 21:42].

AIMEE ROBINSON: Then we also use FCC certified wood and solid woods regarding any particle wood or any manufactured wood. So that one also ensures that you’re not contributing to deforestation, that it’s to the best of capacity responsibly harvested. And a solid wood frame is going to last forever. It helps with durability, structure and also that you’re not contributing to deforestation […]

What else?

DEBRA: I just wanted to mention and make a note about your wool covers, the wool cover that you use on your covers. One of the things that’s going on right now is that there’s a big shift going on in the state of California where, for many years, they have a flammability standard that had to do with the foam inside the sofa needed to be able to withstand an open flame test. And now they have a whole different kind of test that’s called the smolder test. It’s like you put a smoldering cigarette on it. And the cover needs to withstand that smoldering cigarette. So that totally changes everything.

And also, there are some sofas that are being allowed to be sold now. But by January 1st 2015 coming up, all the sofas sold in the state of California are going to need to meet the standard.

Now, wool is very difficult to ignite. And so if there’s one natural fiber that’s going to pass that test, it’s wool.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yes. And it’s absolutely universal for everything else on the batting inside our sofas. So, we use several different types of wool. But we use one particular wool that comes from Germany. It’s certified organic. That also has to do with the sheets, with how it’s procured, the treatments, that it’s not treated.

Sometimes, wool, [inaudible 24:14], you denature it. You kind of straighten out the fibers, and then you crank it [inaudible 24:21]. How wool connects with each other is through these—there’s a quality in the fiber of the wool just by itself because these little hook in the fiber will hold on to each other. And so wool, to homogenize it, they can chemically treat it to be able to have it [inaudible 24:48].

So, we use actually use organic wool. And we use a German wool because, for me, with the sofa, just not only that the materials are quality and clean, but aesthetically…

DEBRA: Yes, I think that’s very important too.

We need to go to break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza. We’ll talk more with Aimee right after this.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Aimee Robinson, Founder and Owner of EcoBalanza. They focus exclusively on creating sofas and upholstered furniture made with organic certified and natural materials. And she’s at EcoBalanza.com.

Aimee, let’s talk about supply chain. Could you first explain what that is?

AIMEE ROBINSON: It’s looking at where everything is coming from that we had talked about earlier—who is building it, where they’re growing it, who’s involved in the process of actually getting all the materials to me (what I use in my products and my sofas).

And so, for me, it’s what has been very, very important over the years because I’m able to make sure that I work with people that are doing what they say they’re doing, and also to work in a way that’s as socially responsible as possible—socially and environmentally.

So, […] with the wool, like I mentioned earlier, I started working with local, small, family-owned farms. They live in the farms [inaudible 26:53] And I know them. I know what they’re doing. I know how they’re doing everything. And so then I know how the wool is washed, who washes it and who [inaudible 27:08] it.

And it’s like that with every single—in most of the products that I use, I try to go as far back as I possibly can to know from how it’s grown or raised to the finished product to the best of my faculty [inaudible 27:26].

DEBRA: It’s a wonderful thing. Here in Florida where I live, there’s not much agriculture or manufacture of anything or artisan production. But when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I lived out in the woods in the [00:27:46], there was a lot of agriculture going on.

I remember having the experience of—I used to buy my food from what’s called a CSA, a community-supported agriculture. And the actual organic farm, the small, organic, family-owned farm, was very close to where I lived. It was just up the hill literally. I could go there, and I could work in the farm if I wanted to. And I could harvest my own food if I wanted to or I could get the weekly basket. I knew the farmer. I knew everybody that was growing anything in my local area.

I remember, one day, we had a wonderful dinner where we invited all the local growers to come and have dinner.

And I was part of it the prep staff that was prepping the food to make the dinner. And it was just so great to see here were all our farmers and we were having a meal with all their food. One hundred percent of the food was the farmers’ food.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Wow!

DEBRA: It was fabulous! It was just such a demonstration of feeling connected from farm to table that way. My bed that I sleep on is 100% wool Shepherd’s Dream. But when I bought it, I lived like, I don’t know, 50 miles from Shepherd’s Dream and where the wool was grown. I could go visit the sheep and all these things.

So, I know what you’re talking about. It’s such a wonderful experience to know that when I’m lying on that bed, I know where the sheep were that grew that wool. And so you end up having this real connection and also knowing what exactly is going on instead of having your products sourced way on the other side of the world where anything can be happening. You don’t know anything, you don’t know the people, you don’t know what’s happening.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yeah, exactly.

DEBRA: And so this is just one of the things that’s so wonderful about local ingredients and working with local producers besides the fact that there’s this whole concept of vernacular, of having design come out of a local place, out of the materials of a local place. I just love that, that whole idea.

So, I think you’re doing great things about how conscious you are with every aspect of these materials. And this is something that really needs to be applied to every kind of product.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yeah, yeah. We’ll have a whole different world if we all attempted to start doing things that way.

DEBRA: Yes, I totally agree.

So Aimee, we have only about five minutes left with the show. So I want to make sure, if there’s anything else that we haven’t talked about that you want to talk about, that we get that covered.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Well, I know we were talking about the materials that are in the sofa. We were talking about the wool. So yeah, the social aspect, the environmental aspect, there’s all these. I would say this to your listeners, pay attention to that [inaudible 31:08]. And the more that people start asking, it starts creating a need and it starts pushing the world in a new direction.

So, ask, ask, ask questions about everything. Stay curious because it’s important. It’s important to be informed. It can be daunting, but it’s so fascinating to learn where things come from, how they’re done, how we can do something different and better.

And also, sometimes, it’s not so cheap. It’s expensive to do things this way. But it’s looking more long-term. It’s changing that mentality from immediate and “I want it now” to long-term. I think about the things. I plan them when I get them whether it’s food or whatever it is. It’s a long-term thing. It’s a lifestyle. If I buy clothing, if I buy whatever, it’s not something that I just switch in the next two weeks, but this is something that I’ll keep for a while like heirloom […]

DEBRA: Yeah. I have a sofa that I made way before anybody was making natural fiber sofas online. And I designed it myself. I had it upholstered and everything. And I re-made it out of an old wood frame. I don’t even know how old it is. It’s at least 15 years old. It might be 20 years old. But it looks like a new sofa still.

All I have to do is drive down the street and see all these synthetic sofas with their ripped covers and the stuffing coming out and people would put them on the side of the street for the garbage to take them away. This is not what we’re talking about with this kind of sofa. You buy this sofa and you buy it once. That’s the sofa for the rest of your life. And then, you pass it down to your children. So, by the time you look at the cost versus the life, it’s really a bargain.

AIMEE ROBINSON: Yeah, it is. That’s it. I concur.

DEBRA: Well, thank you so much, Aimee, for being with me. I’m glad that we got to finish the show this time, and there wasn’t an ice storm.

AIMEE ROBINSON: I know! Third time’s a charm is sort of like what we were saying.

DEBRA: You can go visit Aimee at EcoBalanza.com. And I invite you to go visit my website. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. That will take you to my website. I have much more than this radio show. I have all kinds of different departments on my website including Debra’s List which is where you can go find hundreds of websites like Aimee’s that are selling toxic-free products. Also, I have a huge question and answer blog where if you have a question about how to live toxic-free, you can ask your question, and I will answer it for free (and also, my readers will answer with their information). I have something like 3000 questions on there already.

So, I’ve got a great search engine. I’ve got a blog devoted to—100% of everything on this blog is about how you remove toxic chemicals from your body, what kind of nutrition you can use, what kind of detox products to use, even things like what foods will remove toxic chemicals from your body, what you can use to support your detox organs. All that kind of information is there.

I’ve got a bookstore that has all kinds of books about what’s toxic and what’s not. I’ve even got a food blog because we talk on there about how to prepare organic, whole, real, natural, local, seasonal foods, what to store them in and what to cook them in, so that you can have toxic-free food.

So, I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. I’ve got lots of things figured out and lots of information on my website.

And of course, we are here talking to people about this subject every day.

Also, if you have a question that you want to ask me personally, you can call me up and ask me that question. I do do paid consultations on the phone. I even go out to people’s homes or businesses and look around and tell you what’s toxic and what you can do to make your home or workspace less toxic. I can come and speak to your group. I can come and speak to your business. I can help you develop new products.

Let’s see. What else could I do? But go to my website. It’s DebraLynnDadd.com or you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and get lots and lots of information. While you’re there, you can even sign up for my free newsletter just right on the home page. You can sign up for my free newsletter, and you will get to read the first chapter of my book, Toxic Free for free. When you get the welcome email, it’ll have a link to the first chapter of my book.

Thanks for being with me. We’ll be back tomorrow.