Sustainability at Transformit

Our efforts to be environmentally responsible are in our roots. Our founder, Cynthia Thompson, is a sculptor who started with not much money in the bank and a lot of projects in mind. Thrift, which goes hand-in-hand with sustainability, was a necessity. Equally, Cindy’s awareness of the toxicity of studio art materials and processes rose in tandem with her awareness of global ecological issues. This experience guides our efforts to choose materials wisely and deliberately with health and environmental impact in mind.

These days, every company wants to be green and “green” is in danger of being reduced to cynical marketing hype. Here are three things we are not cynical about:

At Transformit, we are honestly working to lower our negative impact on the earth and its resources. We recycle the scraps from our work. We reuse materials when able. And we're upgrading our heating, cooling and lighting in our shop and warehouse to reduce our energy footprint.

At the same time, we are working to raise our positive impact on the beauty and livability of the places where people live, work and play.

Third, we are committed to taking good care of our people, and all the people with whom we work.

Thinking "green" gives us a worthy challenge which fuels Transformit’s development as a company of artists, designers and craftspeople well into the future. We have a long way to go!

Where We Are

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Best Green Exhibit, 2011 MOD Award

Reduce
Our structures are big, but lightweight, and it doesn’t take a lot of stuff to make them. The largest ingredient is skilled labor. They are all shipped disassembled, so freight costs (and fuel used) are a fraction of comparable “hard” structures.

Reuse
Since our earliest projects, we have rented our work. Today, forty percent of our revenue comes from rentals. Our rental inventory totals more than five thousand pieces, and our designers and installers are skilled at making each installation unique. Many of our purchase customers use their pieces several times, and then “re-skin” the structures with new fabric and new graphics. We encourage this and design for it.

Recycle
Any manufacturing operation creates waste. At Transformit, we recycle all of our aluminum. Many of the fabrics we use have recycled content. We recycle most of our office waste. Blended fabrics are difficult to recycle, as are printed fabrics, but recycling technology is improving all the time. We recycle those fabrics which can be recycled.