Rooted in Nature
At TY Fine Furniture, we've always believed that making furniture from fallen trees is only half the story. The other half is giving back to the forests that sustain our craft. That's why we've partnered with Greenspark to plant two trees for every order we ship.
Where Your Trees Go
Every tree we plant goes to the EarthLungs Mangrove Restoration Project in Mombasa, Kenya. We chose this project specifically because it addresses two things we care deeply about: environmental restoration and supporting the people who do the work.
Mangrove forests are remarkable ecosystems. They sequester carbon at rates far exceeding typical forests, protect coastlines from erosion, and create vital habitat for fish and wildlife. But they're disappearing—globally, between 20% and 35% of mangrove areas have been lost since 1980, largely due to development and over-harvesting.
The Kenyan coast has been hit particularly hard. The communities there depend on mangroves for their livelihoods, fisheries, and protection from storms. The EarthLungs project isn't just planting trees—it's rebuilding an economy.
How the Project Works
Local community members collect propagules (mangrove seeds), nurture them in nurseries, and plant them in restoration sites along the Mteza Creek. It's hard work—planting sites are often only accessible by wading through knee-deep mud in tropical heat. But it's work that pays fair wages and provides healthcare and insurance to workers.
For every 10,000 trees planted, 20 work days are created for local community members. The project maintains an 80% sapling survival rate through careful planning and protection.
Why This Matters to Us
We spend our days working with wood—feeling its grain, understanding how it grew, respecting what it took for a tree to become the material in our hands. Every piece of furniture we build started as a living thing that fell naturally in Ohio's forests.
Planting trees halfway around the world won't replace the specific trees we use. But it does something important: it keeps us connected to the larger cycle of growth, use, and renewal that makes our work possible. It's a small gesture toward balance.
We also believe that how something is made matters as much as what is made. We pay fair wages to our artisans here in Columbus. Supporting a project that does the same for workers in Kenya feels right.
Verified Impact
The EarthLungs project uses modern monitoring technology—dendrometers, soil sensors, bioacoustic sensors—to track and verify its impact. Every tree is counted. Every hectare is measured. The project is evaluated against the UN Sustainable Development Goals and independently certified.
You can learn more about the project and Greenspark's verification process at Greenspark's project page.
Thank you for being part of this. Every table, every chair, every piece you bring into your home carries a small piece of forest renewal with it.