Sustainability
& Responsibility
Occupant Health
Andalusia prioritizes human health, both in the installed finished building product and in our manufacturing facility. We use low / zero VOC finishes and adhesives for all of our products, including water-based stains and paints, ensuring our material suppliers are validated with their appropriate certifications and the ingredients are transparent, being free of Red List products. Our raw wood and metal materials also avoid VOCs, including formaldehyde, heavy metals and known carcinogenics.
Employee Health
For our employees, we ensure that we provide the necessary protections to ensure a safe environment, including PPE, air flow for paint and stain booths and strong dust collection systems for metal and wood production.
Material Longevity
We use high-recycled content aluminum and metal, as well as sustainably harvested wood. By leveraging corrosion-resistant materials and high-quality plywood and MDF, along with applying treatments, like preservatives, fire retardants and moisture-resistant coatings, we can ensure our products will outlast the aesthetic preferences of the design. We also ensure that the products are easy to maintain, easy to assemble and access, and easy to disassemble, thus ensuring further longevity.
Recyclability
Once the products hit their end of life, we take care in ensuring the product can be disassembled / separated into recyclable elements – which is especially useful for highly-recyclable aluminum and steel. Wood is more challenging to recycle, but chipping, reusing or repurposing offcuts is encouraged. We work with local recycling houses for our metal waste recycling.
Energy Efficiency
We use state-of-the-art digital fabrication equipment, which are newer and more energy-efficient, in general, but also allows for intelligent monitoring of energy usage throughout the life of the equipment. We make sure to partner with higher-end equipment manufacturers to ensure best-in-class quality, equipment monitoring and service.
Supply Chain
Andalusia locally manufactures and prioritizes the local sourcing of raw materials. Besides protecting the environment, it also makes business sense for a vertical manufacturer to have local partners – for product quality, lead times and material / supply chain transparency. All of our raw material suppliers are US-based and all distributors of our raw material are within 20 miles of our factory. Our central US location not only allows us to source local, but also ship local to our US customer base.
Involvement & Awareness
We make sure all documentation is in order and available for our architectural clients. Each product brochure has a page dedicated to materials used and a page dedicated to sustainable practices. We have CE presentations with a large section on sustainability, health and wellness and offers HSW certification. We also engage with our and our partners’ local communities in industry events that promote sustainable practices.
The Future
The value of Andalusia is unleashing the immense potential of combining parametric design principles with digital fabrication to develop high-design ceiling and wall solutions. But not only does this strategy make interesting designs more accessible to the architectural community, it also will play a major role in sustainability. With parametric design, architects can write ‘rules’ around a design’s material usage, energy usage and how a design aesthetically responds to environment. These factors can be easily tracked and traced throughout the design process. By leveraging these digital tools, we can collectively reduce waste in the construction process and in product manufacturing.
