Forest conservation at the dinner table
How can you fight deforestation and teach your children about sustainability while enjoying a family meal? Tsuneyuki Fujioka, producer of FUNFAM, a company that creates and sells reusable tableware made from bamboo, has the answer.
“Forest preservation is an important challenge in preventing global warming. Using bamboo instead of wood helps to reduce the environmental impact of deforestation,” argues Fujioka who got the idea for FUNFAM when he realised the devastation caused to forests in Japan by excessive logging.
Bamboo grows very fast. It takes only three to five years to reach a usable size, whereas pine or cedar trees take 40 to 60 years to reach a similar size. Bamboo as a raw material is therefore capable of much faster regeneration.
The name FUNFAM stands for “fun in the family” and the product concept is based on unique tableware made from bamboo designed for the whole family. There is special focus on fun tableware for children – for a reason.
“Our children’s generation will be dealing with major environmental as well as social issues resulting from our ‘disposable culture’. We want to teach them, in a light-hearted way, to take care of our environment while being connected to family through enjoying family meals,” says Fujioka.
Bamboo is very practical. Its lightness makes it easy for children to handle. Its strong antibacterial properties have been known by the Japanese since ancient times. Before the age of plastic, sushi and onigiri were wrapped in bamboo leaves to keep them fresh.
Fujioka, a designer by profession, set up FUNFAM in 2007 to re-introduce bamboo as a versatile resource in the household context. The company works with Tanuma, a group of traditional custom-furniture makers from the Senju district in downtown Tokyo, and together they design and handcraft stylish and practical tableware.
“These furniture makers are real experts who have been in business for over half a century, and they too realised that continuing with their furniture business contributes to trees being depleted at an alarming rate,” says Fujioka. Cooperation with FUNFAM also allows the craftsmen to pass on their art to the younger generation.
FUNFAM products are currently on offer at 300 outlets in Japan, including department stores, such as Mitsukoshi and Isetan, and specialist shops. There are another 50 outlets outside Japan, including shops in France, Italy and South Korea. This year the company plans to enter the US market.
While the majority of customers are individuals, FUNFAM also actively targets business customers such as hotels and restaurants, kindergartens and hospitals. In March this year, in partnership with a food company, it will launch a new joint venture in the catering business.
Sales at retail stores account for 80%, while online sales through the company’s website (www.funfam.jp/english/)
are continuously growing.
Fujioka is one of a new breed of young social entrepreneurs in Japan, and he has already won several prestigious awards with FUNFAM, including the 2010 E-idea Competition (http://e-idea.org/) launched by the Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) and the British Council across seven Asia-Pacific countries.
E-idea helps young entrepreneurs in the green business in a number of ways, says Simon Batters, LRQA E-idea project director. Initially, competition winners receive funding to directly support their project. More importantly, they receive exposure through high-profile events with business and government networks, and social and business media channels.
“The support from these two well-known and trustworthy organisations was really important to take FUNFAM to the next level. Their mentoring, as well as the public recognition I received, helped a lot to raise the project’s reputation and to secure additional funding,” states Fujioka.
Huw Oliphant, head of Science and Environment at the British Council Japan, adds that the competition organisers are looking for project ideas that make meaningful contributions to the Asia-Pacific region’s environmental future by focusing on real-life sustainability challenges. It is also looking for E-idea winners with the passion to implement these ideas.
“FUNFAM enthusiastically engages with the public through their experiential, educational activities, and thereby they raise awareness and promote the use of bamboo. Their concept shows the great potential of re-fashioning existing ‘green’ technologies and traditions to meet the modern challenge of making products from renewable sources,” Oliphant says.