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Sea Bags – Saving Sails One Tote Bag at a Time

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Sustainability Tagged with , May 7th, 2010 @ 1:04 pm

I love just about everything Sea Bags!  From their founding philosophy of repurposing old sails and their dedication to giving back to their local Portland, Maine community, to their fresh and clean website, Sea Bags has it all.

Sea Bags saves old sails from dumpsters and turns them into coveted tote bags that (like sails) are durable, water resistant and authentic.  They appropriately finish their totes with hand-spliced rope handles for a look that is beach-chic and fantastic!  Bags come in three sizes and each is unique in color, texture, and pattern.

Suitable for all ages, these bags make for wonderful gifts (a hint for last-minute Mother’s Day shoppers).  If your mom already has a plethora of beach bags, check out the fun nautical placemats and coasters in the “holiday” section of Sea Bags website.  I’m sure your mom will appreciate the creative re-use of old sails as much as we do.

Want to know more about this cool company?  Check out the “behind the scenes” link on the “the bags” page for a fun peek into the production process (bags are hand-cut and stitched!).  Also find short but fun bios in the “the crew” link under the brand section.   From pet rabbits to belly dancing mamas, the Sea Bags team is almost as much fun as the bags themselves!

Sea Bags Homepage

Green Gifts for Mother’s Day

By Cameron Filed in General, Sustainability Tagged with , , , , , May 7th, 2010 @ 10:59 am

It’s that time of year again! Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 9th, but before you head off to CVS or the Hallmark store to buy a card, keep in mind that Mother’s Day is an easy time to get something eco-friendly. There are green gifts out there for all interests and budgets, you just need to know where to look.

First, of course, check out the Sale section of MeridaHome.com. Starting at just $49.99, a new stylish and sustainable area rug is perfect for a mom that likes to decorate, or just keep a cozy home. Cute sale designs for spring include the sisal Parquet area rug in Spring Green and the soho wool area rug.

Parquet Sisal Area Rug in Spring Green

If a new rug isn’t in your Mother’s Day budget this year, make sure to enter your mom’s e-mail address into May’s Free Rug Giveaway for a chance to win a 4×6 jute area rug.

Another green gift idea is a piece of jewelry from any one of the twenty major jewelry retailers that are funding the protection of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Zale and Tiffany are among the major jewelers that pledged in April 2010 to no longer use gold from controversial Alaskan mines including Pebble Mine. By purchasing a piece for your mom from these jewelers, you are indirectly helping maintain healthy salmon populations and protecting the natural beauty of Bristol Bay.

Is your mom a working woman? Help her pack her lunches in a green way by giving her a sandwich bag from ReUsies.com. The stylish sandwich bags are under seven dollars and come in an array of cute patterns. I know my mom would love the Garden Floral Snack bag for $6.75. Not only are the bags adorable and stylish, they also eliminate the need for hundreds of plastic sandwich bags per year.

Finally, when I need some new green gift ideas, I check out Green Your Decor’s Green Gift Guide. The guide is separated into categories: women, men, kids, teens, anyone, for the home, pet lovers, stocking stuffers, and gifts that give back, making it easy to browse for the perfect present. My mom would love the Azuri Organic Cotton Scarf on the women’s gift list; it comes in 110 different colors and is just $29.00! Green Your Decor provides a diverse list that is sure to satisfy all your Mother’s Day needs.

Azuri Organic Cotton Scarf

Have a Green Mother’s Day!

Fun Friday Find: Nama Rococo gives us wallpaper that can dance!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design Tagged with , , April 23rd, 2010 @ 2:39 pm

Our fantastic Creative Director Maegan Fee tipped me off to Nama Rococo… in visiting their website it was immediately clear why. Nama Rococo gives us a new way to hang art on the wall – and I’m not talking traditional paintings. Nama Rococo produces one of a kind, stunning hand-painted and hand-screened wallpaper that can instantly add edgy fashion to a room. The prints have a wonderful sense of rhythm and movement that are at once new and exciting yet familiar and soothing.

After checking out their impressive collections (I loooove Tokyo & Vine!), I spent some time digging around the rest of their website and was pleased to find comprehensive “about” and “history” sections. I always find it fun to learn about the journey that people take to achieve success. It doesn’t altogether surprise me that Nama Rococo founder Karen Combs’ story starts off with a wild-haired ride to New York City in the 70’s…

The most impressive part of the Nama Rococo website, however, is the fantastic job that it does in translating their high-end, unique and eclectic style to the web. From the punches of color found in the background flowers to the playful animated graphics, the Nama Rococo website does a seamless job of mirroring the sense of movement and rhythm seen in their prints.

Bottom line: This is not your typical classic high-end textile website. Whether or not you’re in the market for new wallpaper, this is a fun site to check out.

Nama Rococo Website

Earth Day 2010

By Cameron Filed in General, Sustainability Tagged with , , , , April 23rd, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
This year marks Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary. The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. The day truly marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement in the United States, and inspired a new awareness for millions across the country. Society was coming to realize how strongly the health of the environment correlates with human health. Eight years later, in 1978, Merida Meridian was founded.
In celebration of Earth Day, I thought it would be nice to take a look back at Merida Meridian’s thirty-two year history of working towards sustainability. Since the company was started, Merida has been working towards three different types of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. By combining these three avenues, Merida is ensuring that consumers are purchasing a responsibly created product.
Since the beginning, “Sustainability with Style” has been the true goal of Merida. Traditionally, the rug and carpet industry uses petroleum based products and harsh chemicals which means that the flooring industry is dependent on fossil fuels and that the products could potentially be harmful to human health. Furthermore, these traditional types of flooring usually are not biodegradable, so, when people are done with their rugs, they will sit in landfills for generations to come. Merida is constantly working to create change in the industry. Our Jute and Wool rugs are biodegradable and Merida uses natural and renewable materials whenever possible.
Merida has been praised for its efforts, especially over the past few years, when the environmental movement gained new momentum. Merida products have been featured in Real Simple Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Elle Decor, and even ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Over the years, Merida has also become a member to many influential organizations including: The International Interior Design Association, The Sustainable Furnishings Council, The Carpet and Rug Institute, The American Society of Interior Designers, and Wools of New Zealand.
Merida looks forward to many more years of working towards 100% sustainability and creating positive change in both the flooring industry, and consumer purchasing decision process. Happy Earth Day!

Fun Friday Find: Show off your Interior Design Skills with See My Design!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design April 9th, 2010 @ 1:29 pm

Warning: This site is addictive and may consume hours upon hours of your time in one sitting. Now that I’ve gotten my disclaimer out of the way, I have to share my newfound obsession: See My Design. See My Design features a blank floor plan that allows you to design and build a room – from scratch!

Perfect for novice designers and seasoned experts alike, this site allows you to select the type of room you want to design (home office, bedroom, baby’s room, etc.) and then add design elements to the room one by one. Select your furniture, area rugs, walls, plants, and accessories, size them to your liking and position them where you want in the room. You can use the corner with the three squares to spin pieces around. Make sure you do not miss the color picker on the bottom of the screen (hence my super pink baby room!).

Start with an blank canvas....end up with a fully furnished baby room!

This is a great tool to use if you’re designing or setting-up a new room and you already have some of your furniture or a Merida natural fiber area rug (wink, wink). You can enter the exact dimensions of your room and the pieces, and then see how they look to scale. Not building a new house? Play around with rearranging your current room layouts — and save yourself the back the pain of dragging heavy furniture from place to place to see how it looks.

If you already have plans tonight you may want to cancel them; your new found career as an interior decorator is calling…

Fun Friday Find: Reknit reinvents your old sweaters!

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , April 2nd, 2010 @ 12:42 pm

The first time I heard about Reknit I fell in love with the concept behind it.  Reknit features a mother/child duo that is giving a whole new meaning to the age-old concept of reusing clothes…and we’re not talking hand-me-downs!  Launched in the beginning of this year, Reknit turns your ragged old sweaters into coveted new items for a minimal fee ($30.00).

Sounds great, but how does it work?   Each month there is a featured item, from gloves to hats to….thongs!  You can have a say in what you want next month’s item to be by voting between four or five suggested items on the site.  Whatever the month’s item is, you then pick one of your old sweaters and mail it in to the website founder’s Mom.  His/her Mom then unravels it and uses the yarn to knit something new and beautiful!

Reknit: How it works!

Reknit: How it works!

The only catch is that you have to act fast.  As pointed out on the site, the founder only has one Mom, and since all items are hand-knit they cap orders at a mere 30 per month.  Fortunately I got my order for a new laptop case in for this month.  Now I just have to decide what color I want it to be and which corresponding old sweater I can do without.  Just in time to free up some precious closet space for my spring wardrobe…

Fun Friday Find: Mod Green Pod

By Whitney Filed in Fun Friday Finds, General, Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , , March 26th, 2010 @ 12:02 pm

Hi, I’m Whitney, the online marketing specialist here at Merida Home.  As the online marketing specialist, part of my job entails searching the web to find like-minded businesses that share our passion for design and sustainability.  We hope to connect with and support these companies and we hope they connect with and support us too.  In my searching I’ve come across some really great sites that I want to share with you, so I am starting a “Fun Friday Find” that will feature the most interesting site of the week. Without further ado, this week’s first-ever Fun Friday Find is the Mod Green Pod website.

I have known about Mod Green Pod for a while since I had the pleasure of working alongside Lisa in her Boston studio space a few years ago.  I love the fun whimsical fabric and wallpaper prints, but am really inspired by Mod Green Pod’s emphasis on sustainability and dedication to creating local jobs here in the US.  After seeing Mod Green Pod featured in the Urban Sherp newsletter, I decided to check out their site and see what Lisa and the gals have been up to.  That’s when I found their Room Creator…..

The Room Creator features a traditional living room set-up with basic white chairs, a couch, a lamp and curtains.  The room looks pretty drab – but here comes the fun part!  You can drag Mod Green Pod’s wallpaper prints onto the walls and use their fabric to upholster the furniture.  Watch the room come together and get inspired to take some design risks with your own décor!  Don’t like what you create?  Refresh the page and try again.

Hint, you can even decorate the family cat…

Living Room Before Transformation

Living Room Before Transformation

Living Room After Transformation

Living Room After Transformation

Now all this room needs is a matching Merida Home Pavo Thrive Lagoon wool area rug to tie the flooring into the lovely blue color scheme…..

Think you can design a better room?  Send us a screen shot of your favorite design!

Employee Spotlight: Sustainability Director

By Cameron Filed in General, Sustainability Tagged with , March 26th, 2010 @ 7:54 am
So how does a company go about becoming sustainable? What exactly does “being sustainable” entail, and whose job is it to coordinate all of these efforts?

Well, at Merida its Zairo Cheibub, Sustainability Director. Zairo travels the world to make sure all aspects of the Merida rug supply chain are both socially and environmentally responsible. Recently I was able to ask Zairo for a few more details on his job and his role at Merida.

Me: What initially sparked your interest in sustainability?

Z: Having grown up in Brazil which has serious issues of social inequality and poverty, I have always been very concerned about  social justice and economic development. I’ve always wanted to make a difference in these areas, and this was the main motivation for my first professional career as a political scientist/sociologist. In 1992, Rio de Janeiro, my home town, hosted the first Earth Summit with more than 100 heads of states. It was a big event! I immersed myself in the discussions and events of the Earth Summit and was truly struck by the dimension of the environmental issues the earth faced. It was a huge wake up call for me. Later on, during the Sloan Fellows Program at  MIT, I as able to integrate and articulate the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability in a coherent and systematic way.

Me: Why were you drawn to work at Merida?

Z: I took a class at MIT Sloan called Sustainable Business Laboratory (S-Lab) that required that a team of students worked with a company on a sustainability related project. Merida applied to get a student team for a project and my team chose to work with the company. During the work for this project I got to know Merida’s product, processes and people quite well. I was very impressed with the sustainability of Merida’s products, with the partnership the company established in developing countries and the commitment the company had with becoming increasingly more and more sustainable in all aspects. The people at Merida were nice and the work climate was very good… I thought it would be a fun company to work for and I was right!!

Me: Why does Merida Meridian need a Sustainability Director?

Z: Sustainability should be understood as a process and not as a defined, one time result. It is also multidimensional  as it implies a diversity of social, environmental and economic issues. Companies have to constantly strive to make their products more and more sustainable was well was to improve their operations, reduce their energy and material consumption, assure supplier’s compliance with standards and values, etc.  My role at Merida is to coordinate all the different actions directed toward making the company more and more sustainable as well as to make sure that the process is advancing.

Me: What are some current initiatives you are working on at Merida?

Z: The three main initiatives currently are:  working with the Sustainable Business Leadership Program to make our operations even more sustainable; putting together a Life Cycle Assessment project for Merida’s main products; working with our smaller suppliers to help them make their operations more sustainable.

To read more about Zairo and what he has been up to at Merida and at MIT, visit Merida’s Sustainable Design and Manufacturing Blog: http://www.insidesustainabledesign.com/ (Zairo is the main contributor to the blog).

Candles 101

By Cameron Filed in General, Interior Design, Sustainability Tagged with , , February 1st, 2010 @ 9:28 am

One of my favorite elements of interior decorating is light. Different types of light can transform the mood of a room despite the furniture or space. When my roommate and I come home after a long stressful day at work, we tend to turn off the bright overhead lights and turn on a softer side-lamp. We then sometimes light a few lavendar scented candles which creates the perfect ambiance to relax and unwind before we watch some tv or eat dinner. Since I enjoy candles so much, I want to make sure I’m making the smartest and safest purchasing decisions when I buy candles, and not get completely distracted by the pretty colors and scents.candles

However, there seems to be some debate over what type of candles are the most eco-friendly. I’ve heard some buzz about soy candles – some people love them while others don’t see a difference from regular candles. I decided to do some research and see what the deal was with all these various types of household candles. There are three main types of candles: paraffin, soy, and beeswax. Paraffin is the easiest type to find and is what most household candles are made out of. However petroleum is used to make paraffin wax, which means it isn’t necessarily the most eco-friendly choice. Soy has been popularly marketed as a domestic and fossil fuel-free candle choice. Soy has also been said to be a healthier option because it gives off less particulate matter as it burns, but studies have shown that the amount of particulate matter given off by paraffin candles isn’t enough to be hazardous to peoples’ health or safety.

The third popular type of candle is beeswax. Beeswax is slightly less popular than soy and paraffin, but these candles are obviously not made from fossil fuels (like petroleum paraffin candles), and if you purchase them from a local bee farm you can help support local agriculture and cut down on transportation emissions. Plus beeswax burns very slowly, so your candles will last a long time, therefore eliminating the need for you to use more resources and buy more candles. I’m looking forward to researching some local farms with their own beeswax candles; I’m intrigued by this traditional option.

Of course, with whichever option you choose, always make sure to use candles in a safe way….you know: keep them away from children, don’t leave them unattended, etc. and enjoy!

What are YOU sitting on?

By Cameron Filed in General January 24th, 2010 @ 1:08 pm

When I think about the word “recycling”, the first thing that comes to mind is plastic food and drink containers that I take out to the curb each week. However there are different ways to recycle different things and materials. The new emphasis on environmentalism in modern culture has brought fourth some creative ways to recycle furniture. For example, an innovative chair company, Emeco, recently started a “Cash for Clunkers Chairs” program. Who would have guessed that you can send in your old aluminum chair to be melted down and recreated into a beautiful new modern chair with a lower carbon footprint?! Emeco is an international company whose chairs are made from 80% recycled aluminum. And though Emeco needs to transport their products over fairly large distances, they try to reduce their environmental impact in other ways. Emeco uses completely recyclable packing materials –no polystyrene packing peanuts here! Emeco also looks out for the health of their customers by making sure their products do not emit harmful VOCs. More about Emeco chairs can be found at http://www.emeco.net

But if you aren’t looking for aluminum chairs there are plenty of other green furniture companies popping up all the time. Furniture that is economically, environmentally, and socially responsible is becoming more and more available to everyday consumers.

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