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At Van Roosmalen, we are constantly looking at how things can be improved; more efficient, more productive, but also more sustainable. To this end, we also enjoy drawing inspiration from trailblazers in other sectors. This time, we take you to an inspiring company outside the yacht building industry by the name of Finitouch. Corporate social responsibility is ingrained in the DNA of this Amersfoort-based interior designer. Finitouch has been generating its own energy from wind turbines and solar panels since 2014. They specialise in major interior design projects for governmental and corporate clients and convey their sustainable approach in several ways. A conversation with passionate entrepreneurs in two parts, as there is much to learn from these inspiring trailblazers.

Sustainability and interior design

Owner Ron Krijnen: ‘I actually never really cared for sustainability. But that changed around 2005. Together with my wife, I bought and refurbished the De Hoop mill in Nijkerk. At that time, sustainability was only an emerging topic in the Netherlands and we often had discussions about it. As in what will sustainability mean for the interior design industry? We were always ahead of the curve when it came to new machines, we were also one of the first to have a 3D printer, but what were we to do when it came to sustainability? One day we were discussing sustainability again at dinner when my son said: “Dad, just buy a windmill.” A windmill is the oldest energy-neutral building there is. Then, 11 years ago, we placed the first solar panels on the roof. Currently we have 1,300 solar panels and five wind turbines resulting in 100% energy-neutral operations. But even though everyone says that you're doing it for future generations, you're actually doing it for yourself. If that is not the case it’s easy to say, “then I'll do it in 5 years”.’

 

Sustainability and interior design

Marc van Rijssen, Commercial Project Manager, adds:
‘My philosophy on sustainability in furniture customisation is that, above all, it remains customisation.

We are now looking into making customisation circular. This means that instead of gluing furniture together, it is screwed together so that it can always be disassembled again. It remains to be seen whether that will work because it also affects quality, and you will start to notice this after only a few years. To me, sustainability means that an interior we create should look good for 20 years, or, in other words, that it should not easily deteriorate. That, to me, is more sustainable than having to throw it all away after only five years, just to be able to detach and separate it, because then you need to throw it away and put up something new again. Our interiors last four times longer.

Sustainability starts with the materials: For solid wood you have the FSC label, and all our board material is PEFC approved. Our base stock meets this requirement as standard, which is the maximum you can do at the moment. However, if an architect says, "I don't want that," you have a problem.

But then again, what is more sustainable; cutting down a tree that will be replaced and used solely for planks? Or would board material be more sustainable? You only need to saw a plank, while glue is also added to board material. I cannot provide a realistic assessment of that.’

High-tech in the primeval forest

Ron:
‘Breeam certification is the highest class of sustainability for buildings. Public procurement already requires this certification. Construction work is also done based on those standards. Then comes the main design, which we also implement based on those standards. This has not been tested on interiors yet, and there is actually no testing mechanism in place. We do the most we can on our own initiative, however, especially when it comes to the material: PEFC certified wood is the most sustainable, which is almost exclusively coniferous wood with a replanting requirement, which is always 1 in 2. This means that if you cut down one tree, 2 must be planted in its place. You should see how they manage those forests in Finland and Norway these days; based on satellite images they decide which trees to cut down and which not. Somebody used to go by all the trees and put a cross on them, but now that's all done by satellite. Those machines are controlled from the satellite, even logging is satellite-controlled. Having been there, it is insane to see it for yourself. The primal trees remain in place; it is always a mixed forest.

The trend in interior design is clear, however, wood is well on its way out. When you see how many new materials have been added, it's extreme. We are increasingly working with alternative materials, from glass to Corian and everything in between.’

 

Mismatch between norms and reality

‘We did the entire interior design for a major law firm a few years ago. The client wanted to meet the highest standards, but they also wanted to use walnut for the entire interior. The problem is that there is no certification in place for American walnut. The customer wanted to buy trees that had been blown over, and then use the entire trunk. This means that you use the plain sawn and quarter sawn segments, and that you use the residual material for mismatch purposes. This gives you some very nice combinations, and you use 100% of the trunk. This is exactly how we did it, we did our research and fully documented it but, unfortunately, it proved useless to an official body.

The result, however, was absolutely beautiful. You get a very different play of colours; one tree had blown over here, another had blown over somewhere else. The funny thing is that everyone thought that the mismatch would not be very appealing. These are veneer strips of between 3 and 7 centimetres, made up of sapwood, quarter sawn and plain sawn wood. All the colour layers are in there.

So for the front office, plain sawn and quarter sawn were selected; the meeting rooms are all in plain sawn, the general areas all in quarter sawn. The back office, where the staff works, was outfitted with mismatch.

You know what makes it so great? Everyone likes the back office with the mismatch much more than the front office. It is insanely beautiful when you see it for yourself in real life. A cabinet wall like that, full of coloured layers, from light to dark with a strip of brown to light brown, a strip of black, with knots in it... That lives, everyone notices the effect.

This project showed how beautiful sustainable use of materials can be; we had at least 6 projects after that where only mismatched wood was used. These are trees that have been blown over, and you use 100% of the trunk. All the customers consciously requested to have everything mixed, that's how beautiful it is.

Read more about Finitouch with this link https://www.finitouch.nl/