Empatika: Eco friendly fitted furniture specialist in London. Beautiful fitted, contemporary, functional, unique furniture from a range of environmentally friendly materials for clients in London

Empatika

07891 607682

www.Empatika.uk

162 Ladborke Grove
London
Kensington and Chelsea
W10 5NA

tristan@empatika.uk

Company Profile

Empatika is the fitted furniture expert in London. We design and build stylish and functional contemporary furniture using eco friendly materials.

I started my business in 2003 and now have a team of talented crafstmen who design and build fitted furniture for private clients in London.

I have also designed bookcases and storage on various occassions for Westminster Abbey as well as made furniture for home makeover programmes such as "60 Minute Makeover" on ITV and "Homes for the Brave" on sky

Our Social and Environmental Activities

The environment and ethics are at the heart of me, I was brought up with them and they lead me forward in everything I do.

I was brought up for 13 years in the countryside in Belgium in a primitive house with just one cold tap that lived in the kitchen, no tv and no fridge, two wood fires, an outside loo and bathroom, we ate food from our garden, wild plants & mushrooms from the fields, milk from our goats & eggs from our chickens.

I learned alot about the relationship between raw goods, wood, food & our environment & our health. We where taught not to put too many logs on and we saw the relationship between the wood that I saw my dad chop, to watching it burn on the fire and feeling the heat, appreciating where it came from and not taking it for granted.

Today Custom Carpentry is run on 100% Renewable energy since before 2003 with a company called Good Energy, it is now easily available & I believe there is no excuse why we should all not be doing it.

We use materials that don't come from non renewable sources as well as alternatives to wood, everyone is going wood crazy at the moment, but it is important to have variety, we use straw which is a waste by product and hemp which is a fast growing plant. We also use recycled glass, plastic, metal, wood and paints and oils that are made as much as possible from natural raw ingredients that are both healthy for you and the environment.

As well as the materials we use, there is the thought in the design, we don't use glue, just screws and we leave the heads exposed so that the fitted furniture we make can easily be taken apart and re used or recut. I ask customers alot of questions to get a good idea of what they want to use their furniture for now and in the future and we make the units as multi purpose as possible to ensure that there is less reason to want to pull it out and replace it. Also very important in this is making the furniture beautiful, simple and classic design devoid of fashion, and of extremely high quality to make it as durable as possible and there fore more sustainable.

I care about our customers very much, there is nothing I look forward to more at the end of a job than to see a delighted customer, to me that is one of the biggest things that keeps me going. I spend alot of time talking to my prospective customers to find out exactly what they want and need, and I make suggestions that are based on what will be best for them, I take care to suggest things they may have not have thought of and if I see they are making a mistake in their judgement I make sure I let them know that it is not a good idea and I suggest what would work.

At Custom Carpentry we are a team or six. My colleagues are greatly loved by me, I trust them fully and respect their individual characters, I let leave them totally free to count up their time that they work with me and never question it, I want my customers to trust us and I show that to my colleagues by trusting them. I am always extremely flexible with them and there is never any question when any of them want to take time off for any reason. I am always open and encourage their suggestions and input in the business and how we do things, I am constantly striving to improve what we do. Customers tell me that my colleagues find me very good to work with.

In the office we reuse all our paper, I turn everything around and use the other side before shredding it and using it as bedding for our chickens, I have always eaten organic food and all the lunch time scraps go to feed the chickens, we collect the delicious eggs, and at compost the chickens bedding when it is used creating a nice cycle.

We turn off our lights and computers at night which if every business in the world did, would make a huge difference.

As well as daily business I spend alot of time promoting the use of natural and sustainable materials on the internet and have an eco materials series on YouTube.

Memberships and Certifications

Organisation for Responsible Businesses (ORB). Responsible Business Member