I’ve had a Grove bamboo iPhone case for over a year now, and it remains an eye-catcher that has people asking, hey, what’s THAT, and wanting to hold it, admire it, maybe even quietly slip it in their pocket while I’m not paying attention and make a break for the exit. Not that those are the best reasons to run out and grab one of these, but it doesn’t hurt to note that others are bitten at first sight the way I was.
I believe this product is best in class, for reasons including design features and workmanship, but also upstream to include operations and guiding philosophies of the organization. There’s a lens through which I often assess a product, service, or organization like Grove. It’s referred to as Life’s Principles, as developed and articulated by Biomimicry 3.8.
Think of, say, your car’s owner’s manual or more broadly the brand platform for the automaker. In nature, life creates conditions conducive to life, and has been for over 3.8 billion years of evolutionary R&D guided by principles in life’s operating manual. It’s a great benchmark for really assessing sustainability.
This product meets several Life’s Principles with a whole lot of moxie. First, it’s made of bamboo, one of the most resource efficient materials in the world. Bamboo is incredibly strong and pliable, it grows far faster than hardwood trees, has a smaller footprint ounce-for-usable-ounce, and consumes significantly less water and energy to grow and harvest.
Beyond the bamboo, the case is clearly handcrafted and fine-tuned – it is, as they say, “hand-sanded, filed and oiled to perfection like a classic piece of furniture.” The design form provides several functions, including protection, increased tactility/grip, and even communication, with the opportunity to engrave words and pictures (send them your own artwork). Plus it’s got that eco-friendly goodness vibe about it that, for me at least, ices the cake.
I like how one of their representatives replied to me recently when I emailed that I’d been mending the cracks in my aging case. She said, “You’ve done a good job of keeping it together with glue! I hope you used wood glue, not super glue or crazy glue … we don’t have a specific way to recycle materials, but since it’s an organic and natural substance you can probably place it in a compost.” I give them good marks for sustainable materials use.
Let’s also take a closer look at what’s more deeply sustainable about this product, and really when we’re talking about a brand, especially in the era of social media, corporate social responsibility, and a whole bunch of shades of green, you have to look beyond the product to the company itself.
Here are some words from the company: “Founded in 2009, Grove is a small team of passionate creators changing the way you think about products. We do everything ourselves from start to finish here in Portland, OR. The result is greater innovation, complete accountability, direct human relationships, and superior quality.”
Now, I don’t know any of these folks personally, but it sounds like from what they say, and what others say about them (including a community of designers that supports them worldwide), that this is a group that fosters symbiotic, cooperative, and community-savvy relationships. In fact, an example of this is how they’ve “cross-pollinated” with MapleXO Design to create iPhone case backs that are “made of 100% post-industrial skate material,” essentially reducing the amount of waste material generated in the manufacture of skateboards.
This group also appears keenly adaptive to changing conditions, as they note in a story on their website about when they completed their first design for the iPhone 3G and 3Gs, there was an Apple vendor leak for the iPhone 4 that rendered the product they’d been designing nearly obsolete within weeks. They pulled themselves together, rejiggered and were prepared to chase and deliver on the new iPhone 4 soon after it was released.
So check Grove out. Not only do they offer a great product, but it’s also one that appears to be very much in tune with big picture sustainability … again, operating conditions that are conducive to life. More at: www.grovemade.com. And more on Life’s Principles here.
