Sintala Design: Solid Wood Products Which Respect the Environment

Sintala Design is creating beautiful products made from 100% solid wood, but here's the catch: all of the wood is only taken from fallen trees, prunings, or anything left over from other manufacturing processes. This is a great initiative and will no doubt attract a lot of support. Rodrigo Aranda is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sintala Design, read on to find more about his vision:

Everything started 30 years ago with "the grafiosis" (a disease that attack elms trees). My father Jose Luis co-founder of Sintala Design started developing a technique to reuse this wood and transform it into furniture. Our raw material can be from fallen branches or fallen trees (in most cases due to climatic conditions like a storm), prunings from parks around us, and remains from other manufacturing processes.

We contribute towards reducing waste to follow the concept of a circular economy. Sintala Design is the first firm that has the hallmark “Fair Wood” in all of its products. Every piece of furniture will have this tag that certifies the legality of the wood´s origin and respect for the principles of Fair Trade.

Why do we need Sintala Design?

As a society we have a challenge: a company has to provide a service for people, but it does not need to go into conflict with the environment. It should be guaranteeing the future for everyone on the planet.

The earth loses 18.7 million acres of forests annually, equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

What inspired you to start?

Since I was a child, I've been concerned about environmental issues.  In my City, I was considered as one of the pioneers for raising awareness about recycling movements. I always tried to convert my choices in life to be sustainable and ethical: furniture was always a hard topic for me when it comes to sustainability.

What have Sintala Design achieved so far?

• We have used forest urban residues in the cities of Segovia and Madrid.
• We have picked up the pruning from parks and then, from these branches, we have designed and manufactured street furniture for the city.
• We are collaborating with a factory of musical instruments
• We have created a line of furniture and a line of cladding from small pieces of left over tropical wood (with a huge value for us)
• We are currently in a research and development phase and have been able to use branches that have 7cm of diameter.
• We have developed research with the University of Alcala about ecosystem services in a juniper forest
• We are reusing faulty wood parts from Leroy Merlin in Spain

What are your future plans for Sintala Design?

In collaboration with Copade Foundation: this is a project we have started right now in Guatemala about forestry use.

Horizon 2020 in collaboration with the University of Barcelona and Madrid. This is an initiative to consider the reuse of agricultural residues from the citrus sector in Spain, Italy and Malta (This project is still pending approval)

How can people get involved in your project or help out?

Within the next six months, we're going to receive around one thousand children from different schools to help out with our industrial installations. This will help to raise awareness about being respectful of the environment.

Anything else that you'd like to share?

Our philosophy is about producing solid wood products whilst we respect the environment and help the ecosystem with self-regeneration through small actions. We also encourage rural employment in the areas where we extract the wood.

Find out more about Sintala Design at these links:

Website: Sintala Design

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