My son brought a little fan to me the other day. Three of the five blades had broken off and he wondered if we might fix it. We threw it away...just like the five others before it. Right into a land fill somewhere. It was made to be disposable, not fixable. Planned obsolescence is real, and it has a huge impact to the environment. I started thinking about the scores of cheap little import fans we have gone through in this country, over the last decade. They just don't last because they just don't make them like they used to.
Well...we do! We make furniture, lighting and home decor...just like they used to! Hand-forged, by hammering steel into shape using a combination of sheer finesse, and brute force.
One of my team members was visiting with a customer in a busy area, and was approached by a woman who recognized the Stone County Ironworks logo on her shirt. This kind lady spoke up and explained that she had been using the same SCI barstools for 20 years, and she loved them. Needless to say, the customer was impressed...although she probably thought it was all brilliantly staged!
The truth is, that woman will never again have to buy a replacement barstool. Never! If it did break we would fix it for her. I remember when we refinished a fire tool set that had been through a house fire once. It looked great, and had much more value to that family than before. Most of the energy required to make that fire tool set, or the kind lady's barstool, was human energy. And most others would have been replaced three times by now.
If everything were built the way we still build things every day at Stone County Ironworks..."green" wouldn't be a marketing concept...It would be a way of life!
Click on the link below for a peek.
Corky Baker
President and Chief Ecologist