If you’re been following Taylor for the last few years, you’re probably already aware of our efforts around creating more environmentally responsible practices for sourcing the materials that go into our guitars. What began with Taylor’s purchase of an ebony mill in Cameroon in 2011—a business investment in responsible sourcing—evolved into something far greater with the launch of The Ebony Project, a philanthropic effort to create a scalable community-driven planting program and to conduct pioneering scientific research. Those efforts have since blossomed into work closer to home with our Urban Woods Initiative and our reforestation programs in Hawaii. Today, we’re continuing our work on those critical projects while developing other ideas behind the scenes that we hope will become more ways for us to protect forests and help safeguard the materials that have for so long allowed our industry to thrive. Where and when we can, we’re trying to give back.
These efforts are in constant motion, so it’s always an honor when our work in environmental responsibility gets to step into the spotlight. That was recently the case when CBS News Bay Area ran a pair of stories highlighting the Urban Wood Initiative and the Ebony Project, stopping by the Taylor factory to chat with co-founder Bob Taylor and learn more about the work we’ve been doing to spur change in how we and other manufacturers impact the global environment.
Keep reading for more information on these efforts and watch the news segments below.
Urban Woods Initiative: Reducing Waste with Design Innovation
Launched with our first use of Shamel ash back and sides in the Builder’s Edition 324ce, the Urban Wood Initiative stemmed from a partnership between Taylor and West Coast Arborists, a California-based company with a history of including environmental stewardship as a component of their operations across the state. Working in tandem with the tree gurus at WCA, Bob Taylor and Andy Powers identified wood species commonly found in municipalities, parks and other urban areas across the state that could also be used to construct great-sounding guitars.
Our partnership with WCA allows us to take a small step towards developing a circular economy around these woods, repurposing trees—which have been removed for safety reasons, to prevent damage to infrastructure or simply because they have reached the end of their natural lives—by milling them into backs and sides for guitars instead of sending them to landfills. In turn, WCA plants two trees for every one they remove, helping promote a healthy urban canopy, which brings a multitude of benefits including cooling urban areas and providing habitat for wildlife.
The project continues to grow as we include more urban species in our guitars, including red ironbark, which is used to craft backs and sides for guitars in our 500 and Presentation Series. You’ll find Shamel ash in the Builder’s Edition 324ce as well as in our T5z hybrid hollowbody electric guitars.
The Ebony Project: Advancing Environmental Science and Supporting Local Communities
West African ebony has long been the luthier’s wood of choice for acoustic guitar fretboards. Its density and hardness make it ideal for use in the part of the guitar that tends to experience the most wear, also offering exceptional transfer of vibration to enhance the guitar’s voice.
But for many years, the practices used to source ebony for guitars and other woodworking applications led to a great deal of waste. Decades of preference by consumers and manufacturers alike set an unfortunate, and ultimately inaccurate, standard for the use of ebony, that only the deepest black heartwood could be bought and sold. On a trip to Cameroon to learn about ebony sourcing, Bob Taylor learned what locals and environmental scientists already knew: Only a percentage of ebony trees cut down actually contain perfectly black heartwood, the rest containing rich brown variegation—even though the more colorful heartwood possessed identical physical traits and workability, including for use in guitars.
He also learned another troubling fact: As a matter of practice, if an ebony tree was examined after being felled and found to not possess uniformly black heartwood, that tree would simply be abandoned on the forest floor in pursuit of another. With that discovery, Bob immediately changed over a hundred years of industry tradition and began using beautifully variegated ebony across the Taylor line. Today, you’ll find both black and variegated ebony fretboards on a wide range of Taylor guitars. We use what the forest gives.
In 2016, Bob Taylor launched the Ebony Project in partnership with The Congo Basin Institute in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Now operating in 13 villages around the Dja Forest Reserve (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Ebony Project is proving to be a viable model for community-led agroforestry across the Congo Basin, receiving support from The World Bank, Global Environmental Facility and the Franklinia Foundation. To date, the project has planted over 40,000 ebony trees and 20,000 fruit trees.
Update: Taylor Urban Woods Initiative Hits National News
We’re thrilled to share that following CBS Bay Area’s local airing of the stories on Taylor’s sustainability projects, CBS News decided to air the story to their nation-wide audience. Watch the segment below.
Visit Taylor’s Sustainability Hub for more information on our ongoing environmental initiatives.
