A Passion for Green

Published: May 12, 2008 on ISW Online
By Brad Walseth

Richmond, CA, cabinetmaker Bill Walker believes that custom woodworking shops can lead the way into a new green future.

It seems like you can’t turn on a television or radio these days without hearing about new green initiatives cropping up in all facets of life, and woodworking is often the forefront of this new “green wave.”

“Sustainability” and “low-VOC emissions” are new “buzzwords” that few in the industry would have been aware of even just a few years ago. But new concerns about the effects of chemicals like formaldehyde in wood products have been in the public eye recently, especially when FEMA-supplied trailers made Katrina refugees ill. And even non-believers in the dangers of global warming might agree that proper management of limited natural resources is in everyone’s best interests.

California is often at the leading edge of public opinion, so it is no surprise that the state took the first action when its Air Resources Board passed regulations requiring the reduction of formaldehyde emissions. While the new, more stringent standards may create a burden for some sectors of the industry, others welcomed the new regulations as an opportunity not only to develop and build new markets, but also to make a positive difference in the world. Richmond, CA-based Bill Walker is a cabinetmaker who wants to be a socially-conscious business leader helping to lead the woodworking segment into the future.

Go West, Young Man

Not that Walker has come lately to the cause; he has been an active proponent of green thinking for years. A native New Englander, Walker learned his trade doing antique restorations on colonial houses. Working with 100- to 200-year-old homes gave the young man an appreciation for quality that lasts and doesn’t end up in the nation’s landfills after a short time.

“Durability is a green aspect,” he says.

Like so many before him, he traveled west across the country and ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, carrying his toolbox with him. While working for a few shops, Walker says he became disillusioned by the waste of materials and rejection of wood with natural “defects.” One day, he decided he had had enough.

“I finally quit the shop I was working for,” Walker explains, “because I was asked to cut up a 36-inch-wide by 9-ft –long by 4-inch-thick piece of Hondurus mahogany, this gorgeous old-growth slab, a beautiful piece of wood, into 1-inch by 1-inch stair balusters for some rich guy’s mansion. I couldn’t do it. Told the boss, ‘I can’t do this, I’m sorry.’ That was it. I quit. I quit on the premise that I wanted to start a business that had a higher regard for the environment.”

That was in 1997. Living in a treehouse he built and working out of a barn, Walker began to build his business his own way. For a young man who had turned down the opportunity to become a full partner in the New England restoration business because he didn’t want the responsibility, becoming the owner of his own business was a huge step.

“Let’s just say my boss at that time recognized something in me that I didn’t recognize in myself,” Walker says, laughing. “The overriding factor was that I just wanted to do something better. I didn’t think I could necessarily do a better job, as there are plenty of skilled people out there, but I mean a better job with regards to the world we live in, a more conscious job.”

In 10 years, Silver Walker Studios (Walker’s wife’s name is Lisa Silver, and their married family name is Silver-Walker) has grown from one table saw in a barn into three 1,800-square-foot buildings, seven employees and an estimated $2 million in sales this year. In fact, Walker is already looking into building a new, larger and entirely green facility, hoping to move the business possibly within another year. And Walker says it is green that has fueled the company’s growth, even in a down economy.

“It’s been something I’ve kept in focus through the years since I started my job back in ’97,” he says. “Back then, environmental or green cabinetmaking was not in existence. It wasn’t the buzzword it is today. But I’ve always been doing it. What we call ‘stealth green’ (a term used to describe the fact that it is green without explaining it to the client or without them knowing about it): using domestic species, not wasting material and convincing my customers that character marks and defects are natural and that they should accept those in wood, because God makes the wood, we don’t make the wood. If you want clean and perfect, it’s called plastic laminate.”

Green Technology

With his business growing, Walker became smitten by the technology bug. The first piece of technology he bought was Planit Solutions’ CAD/CAM drafting software. He later invested in a Routech Record 125 CNC router from SCM Group. At that point, the employees were comfortable with the software, Walker says, so the transition to CNC technology was easy.

When he bought the router, Silver Walker was only doing $150,000 per year in sales, but he understood that the investment in technology was crucial, Walker adds.

“The common understanding is you are to run the machine five days a week,” he explains. “They don’t advise that you buy the machine if you are only doing $150,000 per year. We didn’t have the productivity to support it.

“I disagreed with that and had to convince the loan company to allow us to purchase the machine, because the machine actually cost more than what the production was,” Walker adds. “They were quite shocked that I was interested in this level of technology, and we had to put a big ‘down’ and rob Peter to pay Paul. But the machine is about to be paid off in two more months. It obviously has paid for itself over and over again and has allowed us to grow.

“It’s like I told the lease company, ‘I can’t go to work if I don’t have a car. I can’t make cabinets if I don’t have the equipment,’” Walker continues. “A lot of shops are apprehensive about buying equipment because they don’t want to have the loan. But you just can’t have a business without the technology. Buying equipment is extremely expensive and becomes overhead, so you just increase production to pay for it. It’s a business, and I couldn’t do the work with just a table saw and a drill press.”

Other equipment has been added, including a Gannomat Index 130 Trend borer/dowel inserter from Tritec Associates, an SCMI Sandya widebelt sander, Unique doormaking equipment and a Brandt CNC edgebander. Not only has the computerized equipment allowed the company to lower its lead time down from an industry standard eight-to-12 weeks to six weeks, but Walker feels that technology allows him to be as green as possible.

“We’re highly automated,” he says. “All the equipment is networked to the office. My crew is very forward-thinking. We have put down a very high level of technology here.”

The systems Walker has in place increase productivity and minimize waste. He employs both lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing processes, which he points out are green attributes. Additionally, 25 percent of all jobs are now completed in four weeks, and Walker believes they can further reduce their lead time to an incredible two weeks some time next year.

Not Just an Option

Walker’s belief in and passion for green manufacturing is strong.

“For us, green is not an option,” Walker says flatly. “For some of our few competitors, green is an optional thing. You have to wait extra long for a quote; it’s special; it takes extra time, and it costs more money. For us, green is not an option, it’s the standard.

“All of our case products are FSC-certified from Columbia Forest Products’ PureBond. All of our materials are custom ordered. We don’t use any stock stuff. You can’t generally get FSC-certified PureBond off the shelf.”

But does this reliance on green material cost more?

Walker replies, “There is a big misnomer in the industry that using FSC-certified materials costs more. While it does cost a little bit more, in the course of a $20,000 kitchen, the materials are maybe 30 percent of that. The actual wood is an even smaller percentage. So if something were $1 more a board foot, which it isn’t by the way, FSC lumber is not a lot more expensive than standard lumber.

“The plywood is more expensive, but then again, we bring in a custom product. We have a relationship with Earthsource, our supplier here in Oakland. It is hard for other shops to do what we are doing because they don’t have a supplier that is dedicated to bringing in the FSC wood. But even beyond what Earthsource offers, we bring in custom plywood. We are working on a direct relationship with a mill in Pennsylvania to bring in our door stock pre-milled direct.

“We use recycled cardboard, we recycle our cardboard and we recycle our sawdust,” Walker continues. “We recycle our scraps, what few we have. I designed a whole process for making cabinets to get better than 95% optimal yield on our plywood products.

“We make our drawer boxes with 5/8-inch PureBond and our cabinet backs with 5/8-inch PureBond. It’s the same material. The drawer box parts are very small. They nest in the places that are too small for cabinet backs. We used to throw away 20 to 25% of 1/4-inch backs because we just couldn’t use them. They didn’t optimize on the sheet because cabinet widths are generally 24 to 30 inches. So I looked at that and said, ‘Well, 5/8 inch costs more than 3/4 inch, but not much, and it turns out all the drawer box parts can nest in that waste.

“Now we throw away very little. What waste we do create, I’ve got these creative reuse partners who come in and take it. We give it away to schools, recycling. These are very easy things to do,” he says.

“We put in a doormaking cell, and we are one of the few small shops that build all our own doors,” Walker adds. “We build all of our drawer boxes. We dons’t outsource moulding, we don’t outsource doors or drawers. We have to make our own because of the green. The only component that I can buy FSC-certified is dovetailed drawers from Western Dovetail. We are beginning to produce doors for other shops locally and are setting up order forms and catalogs to go national.

“In our shop, we are strong about not offering anything that is not FSC-certified,” Walker adds. “On the FSC thing, we asked the question, ‘What good does FSC really do for our customers?’ It’s not like indoor air quality, so you have to look at what is FSC all about. It’s all about third-party certification that a forest is well managed and ‘sustainable.’ Now, most foresters know that they can’t cut down all the trees or they are out of a job. But part of the FSC requirements is that they are not using slave labor. They are spending the money to take care of the forests, to take care of the people. It’s going to promote better jobs in more areas.”

Because Silver Walker works with a nationwide network of distributors selling its customized cabinet line, the question arises regarding the non-green elements involved in shipping.

“That is an issue of concern for us,” Walker admits. “We have dealers and shipping, obviously, is an issue. It’s inherently non-green. It’s going on trucks, and it’s coming from far away. The LEED requirement for local manufacturing is a 500-mile radius. So you pick up some points if you are within 500 miles of the project. Now, here is the caveat: there is not a green manufacturer in every city in the USA. So, unfortunately, shipping has to come into the picture.

“It’s like the PureBond. There’s only one plant that makes it and it is in Klamath Falls OR,” he adds. “You can’t have a plywood-producing plant in every city in the country. You can’t grow bamboo everywhere. The stuff has got to come from somewhere. So shipping has to be part of the picture.

“Part of my business plan is to have small regional manufacturing centers, as opposed to a large central location. We also ship out local on a bio-diesel shipping company: Blue Sky ships all local product,” he says.

“One of my business philosophies is to create the market demand so we can go to suppliers and pass along the demand to create those products. That’s been successful. Ten years ago, I couldn’t go down to EarthSource and get FSC-certified plywood. Now I can. And I’d like to think we were part of the movement that put that pressure on suppliers. Same thing with shipping,” Walker adds.

“People get uptight about shipping being non-environmentally friendly. Let’s expand the envelope and let’s look at the big picture. Shipping will never go away. It can’t. So let’s put the pressure on the shippers to go green. So we do carbon offsets. We use www.freightquote.com. There’s another example of pressure. They now have a button when you ship to click to carbon offset through TerraPass. Carbon offsets are not the big solution, just a baby step, but we’ll take a baby step,” he says, adding, “We know we can’t get to the ultimate solution, but we do what we can do.”

Green for People

When one walks into the paint booth at Silver Walker Studios, the lack of odor is immediately apparent.

“It’s good for my employees,” says Walker. “They’re spraying reasonably healthy finishes. We do it for the health of our customers, and I do it for the health of our employees. Honestly, my guys aren’t here because they’re ‘tree huggers.’ They have stuck around because, even if they don’t admit it readily, they like working with non-toxic stuff.”

Walker’s enthusiasm for environmentally-friendly finishes has led to action.

“As everyone knows,” Walker says. “CARB has passed its formaldehyde regulations which are beginning to take effect. And there is a bigger mandate to use low-emitting panel products, FSC-certified materials and low-VOC finishes. We actually worked closely with CARB on passing that regulation. They came down here and exchanged information. I’d like to feel we were instrumental in getting that regulation passed, along with EarthSource, which was on the board.”

A concern for many manufacturers is that the water-borne finishes aren’t quite there yet as far as quality, scratch resistance, chemical resistance and so on.

“We have proven that belief to be wrong time and time again,” Walker says.

“We are switching to Renner,” Walker conitnues. “an ultra low or zero-VOC-based coating. Currently we are using the Becker Acroma finishing materials, which is also ultra low-VOC emitting water-based coating. It is absolutely harder, more scratch-resistant, more chemical-resistant than the solvent-based finishes. We put the two side by side and there’s no question. We’re making high-quality product with it.”

Walker says moving to water-based is a challenge, albeit one with rewards.

“Granted, going with the water-based finishes is a tricky endeavor,” Walker says. “We’ve been doing it for five years now, and some are just getting involved with it. They are going to have R&D involved. The problem with the R&D on water-based finishes is that no one is doing it. You’ve got no one to call. My supplier only has a handful of people using this stuff. So you’ve got to figure it out. You’ve got to be dedicated to doing this.”

Not only are the wood and finishes non-toxic to employees, but in a nice green twist, natural lighting is provided on the shop floor by skylights overhead. This not only provides a pleasant work atmosphere and saves money on lighting, but also allows the workers to more easily catch defects.

Walker hires his workers from the area and does not believe previous woodworking experience is necessary.

“Basically, we have a system in place and we just plug people in and they do their job,” he says. “We’ve made it very easy. You don’t have to be a cabinetmaking veteran to assemble. It’s all Confirmat construction. I can train a person in two weeks and they’re flying.

“We get all our drawer parts off the CNC. We’ve gone to butt joint Confirmat construction on our casegoods. We also have dowel construction drills. We get the dowels, the holes, the dado all done on the machine. We take them to the case clamp, take five minutes to assemble the box and they’re perfect. He installs the clips and they go right into the cabinet. You won’t find many shops where they get all their drawer parts off the machine, ready to go,” Walker says.

Walker also gets some business incentives, including low-interest loans and tax credits on machine purchases, because the company is located in an “Enterprise Zone.”

“I was here for probably four years before I realized I was in an Enterprise Zone,” he says. “I also get hiring tax credits if I hire within the Zone, and there are different rules if the guy was in the military or laid off or never had a job before.”

No Fad

But what about those who say green is just a fad?

“It’s definitely not a fad,” Walker responds. “Is organic food a fad? You can now buy organic Dole pineapples, you can buy organic Welch’s grape juice. They said the same thing about organic food 15 years ago. Green building is the same thing as organic food, except it’s going to be even bigger. It’s a bigger market and affects people in an even bigger way.

“It’s here to stay because it isn’t more expensive,” he adds. “It’s been proven that by building to standards, any additional costs will be recouped or paid back in the lifespan of that building. Our product doesn’t cost any more than any other high-quality comparable product on the marketplace.”

The Big Picture

Some, like former President Bill Clinton, tout the green movement as a way to create new markets and stimulate the economy. How does Walker feel about this?

“We have a manufacturing base evaporating in America. That’s a real fact,” he says. “So look at what we’re doing. We’re a manufacturer and we’re manufacturing green. We are successful due to us embracing technology, due to us embracing the green movement, due to us doing everything we can do to make it work. That’s another reason why I want to move to a bigger facility, to prove that you can be successful manufacturing at a high green level. Can it stimulate the economy? It’s stimulating our business.

“Another green angle is localized manufacturing and creating regionalized jobs. The market will always be the market and cabinetmaking will always be a commodity good. Will a green revolution create new a new market? Probably not,” Walker says. “But, the population will grow. That much we know. As the population grows, we need more houses, we need more schools, we need more businesses, we need more cabinets.

“The global economy is kind of a new thing. It’s just happened so fast,” he adds. “I lost a job to someone who was importing from China. They could produce the cabinets so much cheaper that they could afford to Fed-Ex them to beat my lead time. But, what a lot of people don’t realize is the Chinese folks are starting to catch on. Their social experiment is coming to a close. The

Chinese workers are demanding higher wages and benefits. When it catches on, it will catch like wildfire.”

In the end, Walker sounds an optimistic tone.

“It’s a sustainability thing,” he says. “When I’m talking about sustainability, I’m talking forest sustainability, economic sustainability and job sustainability. These are all linked together into one big picture.

“I’m truly in this because I want to do the right thing for our customers and the world around us, and although this may sound altruistic, I honestly feel that if every manufacturer did just a little bit, we’d live in a vastly different place,” he adds. “So do something. It doesn’t have to be everything. You can feel good about it and your customers can feel good about it.”

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