Okre Home

 

Okré Home

Educating Costa Rican artisans on sustainability, getting them FSC-certified, and manufacturing products using sustainable materials.

 

Following on from the earlier workshop and product development with the artisans of Sarchi, Costa Rica, I developed and ran a second workshop focused on sustainability. This taught the artisans the principles and practices of sustainability, and led to development of new products made from FSC-certified wood (Forest Stewardship Council) that could be sold at a premium.

This workshop was done in collaboration with Okré Home, and a Panamerican Woods, a Costa Rican forestry company and teak wood flooring manufacturer that is FSC certified.

Outcomes:

  • Traditional artisans and Okré Home became FSC-certified, open up new markets for their products
  • Premium pricing for FSC products means up to 15% increase in revenue for the artisans and Okré.

Okré Home Condiment and Cheese Plates

I designed these products in collaboration with the woodworking artisans of Sarchi, who received FSC-Certified scrap wood from Pan-American. This series of products is produced by three different artisan workshops, each using different production techniques. The addition of a new product line for each of the artisans has the capacity to increase their income by 15% over the year. Additionally, the artisans are now familiar with sources of affordable, sustainably forested wood for the other products they produce.

Each product uses materials that would have normally been burned as waste, thereby contributing to air pollution and global warming. The off-cuts from the flooring plant were sold to the artisans at 20% of the cost of the wood they normally use, and the Okré brand is a premium brand that sells products at a price point that provides a 200% increase in profits to the artisan.