About Us - Leaf Living

Welcome to Leaf Living. Our company was formed in order to promote sustainable lifestyles. By offering a wide selection of ecologically considered products (see below) and services we hope to make it easier to live in harmony with the planet. We believe that it is possible to continue to lead a high quality of life without exploiting the Earth’s resources or labour, or shipping products halfway across the world. Rather, we take the view that by living within a more natural environment free of toxic materials - all the while supporting local businesses and communities – we can move towards a sustainable, fair, healthy and happy future!

Jarrod Leaf

Managing Director

Products

An ever-increasing number of high quality, stylish and practical green products are being made and it is our aim to find them for you. In order for a product or brand to be sold by Leaf Living, it must be at least one of the following:

Certified Organic
Energy efficient or sustainable energy powered (e.g. wind, biomass or solar power) in manufacture or use
Suitable for vegans or vegetarians
From vegetable sources rather than being made of petrochemicals
From natural or recycled materials (ideally from 100% post-consumer waste)
Durable (so less of them need to be made)
FSC certified or other sustainable forestry.
Educational or awareness raising in the area of sustainable living (see Books/DVDs/Games)
Easily recyclable or compostable locally at the end of its life, or that can be returned to the original manufacturer for recycling
Locally sourced/low carbon option - It's a priotity of Leaf Living to source high quality ecologically considered products where the income generated by our product sales supports all participants fairly throughout the supply chain. Therefore, we don’t ship items across the world in the name of Fair Trade if a more local ecological alternative is available. Only if it isn’t, will we consider importing from abroad and then only until a more local alternative becomes available. Therefore only a limited number of Fair Trade labeled products are found in our store and these are there primarily for their ecological benefits.
All products must be free from animal testing
We would not wish to knowingly sell products which contain materials known to be hazardous to people and other living things (see list below).

As new information comes to light we regularly review our considerations accordingly. Please let us know if there is a product or brand you feel we should support (or stop supporting).

Indoor Furniture Range

The Leaf Living indoor furniture range is made from 100% reclaimed wood. Only the very best quality local pitch pine beams that have been reclaimed from demolished churches, schools, mills, houses etc. are used. This approach produces the most beautiful, unique furniture and is better for the environment.

Reclaimed wood is derived from trees that have grown and matured over hundreds of years. As you will see, the strength and attractiveness of the furniture is stems from the wood’s maturity, an effect that simply couldn’t be achieved using virgin timbers.

Sustainable wood development involves the efficient use and re-use of timber as well as the recycling of waste, but these key aspects have received relatively little attention in the past. More recently, wood waste is becoming a greater public concern partly because of the ongoing forest crisis but also because of the growing volumes of timber waste piling up and increasing concerns over waste disposal. All of these concerns add to the strong argument for using reclaimed wood in furniture production.

According to www.globaltrees.org, less than 10% of wood waste is recycled and at least 3,000 tonnes of reusable timber from the demolition of old buildings is land filled or burnt every working day in the UK alone. This is tragic and unnecessary as this wood could be re-used in a variety of ways including furniture production and the restoration of property. Given the throw away society we live in in the West, we are delighted to be able to bring another life to a discarded material by offering it here as exquisite furniture.

Only the highest quality natural waxes are used on the furniture. Generally, the furniture is supplied with a semi-satin sheen but as wax is a very durable and flexible product, the level of shine required depends on the amount of buffing.

Services

At Leaf Living we try to make it easy to be green. So, we have also created an on-line directory of eco websites in other areas such as green architecture & building, renewable energy and gardening & farming in case they might be of interest to you.

In addition, as part of our committment to sustainability, we automatically offset the delivery emmissions to our customers by making payments to Climate Care. Climate Care is an organisation that reduces greenhouse gas emissions on behalf of companies and individuals. These reductions are made through a range of projects around the world that not only make real reductions in carbon emissions, but also make a difference to people’s lives. To find out more about Climate Care and its projects, see www.climatecare.org. Below are some examples of projects carried out by Climate Care:

Clean stoves in Mexico

This project is working in Mexico to make fuel efficient cooking stoves available in some of the poorest communities. This supports conservation by reducing the wood needed for cooking. It also benefits the householders by removing smoke from the kitchen and dramatically cutting the health risk from wood smoke.

Each stove saves about 3 tonnes of CO₂ a year.

Treadle pumps in India

In the Chhattisgarh region of India, irrigation is vital for farmers to grow crops outside the monsoon season, and ensure an income all year round. Many farmers have to rent diesel pumps at a significant cost to them. By using manual power instead of diesel, each treadle pump reduces diesel fuel use by 0.45 litres per hour on average, saving 0.65 tonnes of CO2 per year. Farmers have also seen their annual income double.

Saves 0.65 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Rainforest restoration in Uganda

We are funding part of a forest restoration programme in the Kibale National Park in Uganda. The project aims to re-create a rainforest canopy by planting and managing 30 species of local trees. The area is an important wildlife habitat – with one of the highest number of primate species in the world - and the project provides employment for local communities.

The project is expected to save 400 tonnes per hectare of rainforest each year.