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Taylor and members of our milling and
purchasing departments, actively travel
the world to investigate firsthand the
sourcing of our wood. We’ve developed pioneering partnerships with
environmental organizations like GreenWood Global, a non-profit organization
that empowers indigenous, forest-based communities to support themselves through sustainable forestry
practices. Our work with Green Wood
in Honduras has led to a successful
new paradigm of social forestry, allowing several villages to participate in the
sustainable harvesting of mahogany.
Our commitment to sustainability is
also reflected in the business relationships we forge with our suppliers and
vendors. Internally, our Responsible
Timber Purchasing Policy provides an
ethical framework that guides our purchasing decisions through the entire
supply chain and requires our suppliers
to do the same. The emphasis on clear
policies and communication has helped
Taylor develop a strong network of
compatible long-term partners.
“We have worked with many of the
same suppliers for 10 or 20 years,”
notes Charlie Redden, Taylor’s Supply Chain Manager. “As a result, we
understand their business and they
understand ours. We regularly discuss
the entire supply chain process with
them, and if necessary, educate them
about the implications of changing legislation. Our suppliers understand and
appreciate how it affects our company
and their business as well.”
Innovative Measures for
Responsible Manufacturing
Beyond the forest, Taylor’s manu-
facturing innovation has helped lighten
our footprint on the environment. In the
1990s, Taylor developed an environ-
mentally friendly polyester guitar finish
that doesn’t have the volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) that are present in
the nitrocellulose lacquer finish com-
monly used on other guitars. By chang-
ing our specifications for milling neck
wood from mahogany trees, our NT
neck design not only created a more
stable, playable guitar neck, it also
enabled us to increase the number of
guitar necks yielded from each tree
harvested by about 50 percent. Among
our eco-minded industry partners are
companies like Reflex Packaging,
which uses recyclable materials to pro-
duce the guitar box inserts we use to
cushion a guitar during transport.
Taylor also has undertaken major
recycling efforts across all levels of
the company. In 2011, the company
recycled and in some cases reused
more than 35 tons of cardboard,
20,000 pounds of paper and paper
products, all plastic wrap, used printer
toners, electronic equipment, batteries,
fluorescent lights, blades, and electrical parts and components, including
e-waste recyclables along with oil and
coolant products. Much of our scrap
wood and sawdust are converted into
particleboard and mulch, while other
pieces are donated to a local woodworking association to be transformed
into toys for orphans in Tijuana, Mexico.
Looking Ahead
Initiatives currently in development
include several new wood sourcing
ventures that support long-term sustainability. As Bob Taylor reveals in his
“BobSpeak” column in this issue, Taylor has become the co-owner of a new
company, Taylor-Madinter, which has
purchased an ebony mill in the African
nation of Cameroon. The mill will supply various manufacturers with legally
sourced, fair trade ebony for fretboards
and bridges. With the help of Taylor’s
milling and manufacturing expertise,
the mill will be able to reduce waste
and provide guitar makers with an
improved ebony product. Meanwhile,
in Fiji, Charlie Redden and Taylor’s
procurement team have been exploring
opportunities to purchase sustainable
plantation-grown mahogany through a
government-managed program which
gives land owners and tribes a defining voice in the future of the country’s
forestry programs. The benefits of both
initiatives include not only a more sustainable tonewood supply, but greater
economic development and stability
within the participating communities.
We’ll continue to report on the progress of both projects in future issues of
Wood&Steel.
As Taylor continues to develop
environmentally sound business relationships with suppliers, vendors and
local communities, we hope to use our
leadership position to help sustainable
programs take root throughout the
guitar industry.
Opposite page (L-R): A road in Cameroon, where ebony is sourced; ebony fretboard blanks from Crelicam, a
Cameroonian ebony mill now co-owned by Taylor; This page (from top down): Taylor’s environmentally friendly
polyester guitar finish is applied using a combined robotic/electrostatic spray system, which dramatically reduces
material waste; a stack of milled mahogany for guitar necks
THE 2012 TAYLOR GUITAR GUIDE
SUSTAINABILITY
EXPLORE SUSTAINABLITY
