Sustainability

At Gaze Burvill we place care for the environment at the centre of all our work – in design, manufacture and running our business. We embrace a commitment to challenging ourselves to do better for our planet in everything that we do.

At its founding in 1993, Simon Burvill and Christian Gaze decided to create a collection of beautiful furniture for the garden, but which was not, like the majority of outdoor furniture at the time, made using tropical woods, often poorly regulated in provenance. The certified oak which went into these new designs had a grain which was straight and clear – a clear sign of a tree which has been skillfully managed as part of a cycle in a productive woodland. Often this wood came, and still comes today, from France, but some also from the UK and Germany.

With the Woodland Seat came the idea of using Chestnut – a wood in plentiful supply in England, and beautiful and durable in all weathers outside, just like oak, all certified of course.

Moving forward with Amity in 2023 the decision to use only oak grown as locally as possible to the Hampshire workshop was made, allowing a little ‘character’ (small knots in the grain) to embellish the seat. There is great joy in knowing the exact provenance of the wood one is working with – and sitting on!

“Sustainability is essential to our future. Embracing this principle, Gaze Burvill sets aside 1% of turnover for its environmental causes fund, which supports the work of Woodland Heritage, a charity devoted to improving the sustainable management and health of the UK’s forests. We are also working towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a guideline for reducing carbon footprint, to attenuate the harms of climate change.”

Lodge Farm provides a setting that is fitting for our experienced team of talented designers and craftsmen whilst respecting the ecological standards we strive to achieve. Our state of the art premises are heated throughout by a modern bio-mass boiler fuelled by the company’s production waste, and our electricity is supplemented by solar panels on the workshop roof.