Artek purchases Finnish forest to protect biodiversity and secure future birch supply
The design company takes responsibility for full product lifecycle – starting from when raw material is still in the ground
Having just celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2025, Artek is planning for the next 90 years by taking action to secure the future of Finnish birch, the material used for the vast majority of Artek furniture. The company has purchased an area of forestland in Eastern Finland, which it will manage using environmentally progressive methods.
This is the latest step in Artek’s efforts to strengthen its deep-rooted relationship with Finnish forests, which are increasingly threatened by climate change and intensive forestry methods. Artek is extending its responsibility beyond the product lifecycle to encompass its raw materials: from the moment a tree starts growing as a seedling to the moment the finished piece of furniture is shipped to the customer.
“Nine decades after Artek’s founding, we know that our furniture lasts for generations. By taking responsibility for where our raw material comes from, we are aligning Artek’s long-term plans with the lifespan of trees. By acting now, we want to ensure that quality birch wood will still be available for our products in another nine decades,” says Marianne Goebl, Global Managing Director of Artek.
Artek and the Finnish Forest
Forests are central to the Finnish national identity. They contain a wealth of life forms, are central to citizens’ recreational activities and, when protected or managed correctly, act as a carbon sink to offset the impact of human-caused climate change. Forests are also of fundamental importance to Artek.
All Aalto furniture continues to be made in Finland, using birch wood from local trees aged between 50 and 80 years old. Some of the trees harvested today were seedlings when Aino and Alvar Aalto were working together. Meanwhile, seedlings sprouting now will not become Artek products until the end of this century.
Using mature natural materials brings with it deep responsibility. That is why Artek makes products that remain in use for at least as long as the growth period of the trees from which they are made. But lasting design requires lasting forest — and Finnish forests are changing. Artek’s high-quality birch timber only grows in healthy mixed forests, which conventional forest management practices in Finland, primarily clearcutting, are making increasingly rare.
Research collaboration with Formafantasma
In 2020, Artek initiated a long-term collaboration with research-based design studio Formafantasma to critically reexamine the company’s relationship to the forest and how it sources its wood.
Working with Formafantasma as a strategic partner, Artek engaged in extensive internal and external research into Finnish forestry practices, supply-chain structures, and the environmental, cultural, and economic implications of timber sourcing.
This sustained process helped articulate the long-term consequences of current forestry practices and brought into focus the relationship between biodiversity, material quality, and responsibility across generations. Through this work, the questions that Artek needed to ask of itself became clearer — and this reframing directly informed the decision to take responsibility for forest management as part of the company’s product lifecycle.
Fostering biodiversity in the Finnish forest
Artek set out to buy its own forest, searching for mixed forest estates with a suitably high share of birch trees. A first site was purchased by Artek in late 2025 to be managed using continuous cover forestry (CCF), an environmentally progressive way of harvesting timber. Continuous cover forestry means that trees are felled on a selective basis, which, together with other measures such as retaining increased amounts of dead wood and live retention trees, ensures that biodiversity is retained more effectively than in rotation forestry. The varied small gap sizes created through selective felling provide ideal conditions for birch to self-seed naturally alongside shade-tolerant trees, increasing species diversity without the need for planting.
Securing the future supply of Finnish birchwood
Silver birch trees represent just 4% of Finnish forests. The specific quality of timber needed for Artek’s products only grows in mixed forests, where the pioneer species birch self-seeds and grows straight and tall in search of light. Rotational forestry is the dominant forestry method in Finland, involving the clear cutting of sections of forest followed by replanting rather than natural rejuvenation. This method of forestry management does not favour the kind of quality birch wood needed for Artek’s long-lasting furniture and if continued, will steadily reduce available supply.
Artek’s own forest will be managed to foster the growth of high-quality silver birch. The goal is that 10% of Artek’s annual birch supply will be sourced from its own forests, with the first birch trees reaching maturity starting from around 2055. The scope of the project, however, reaches far beyond this goal. Currently, less than 2% of timber in Finland is harvested using continuous cover forestry. By proving the technical and economic viability of continuous cover forestry, Artek intends to create a model for other Finnish forest owners to follow.
Reducing the carbon footprint of Artek products
Artek has concluded that the biggest potential for reducing the carbon footprint of its products lies in transitioning away from birch sourced from clearcut forest to forests managed by continuous cover methods. This is what the company will be practicing in its own forest sites, while also looking to increase its supply of wood from other responsibly managed forests in Finland.
Making of Stool 60 wild birch
Several other initiatives have taken place to improve Artek’s environmental performance. The Forest Collection, developed in collaboration with Formafantasma, introduces a new wood selection called “wild birch” to Aalto furniture products. The collection proudly displays the natural variations that occur in birch wood, such as knots, insect trails and colour fluctuations. This means that more of the tree is used in Artek’s most popular and long-lasting products, celebrating the beauty of imperfection found in natural materials and fostering a new aesthetic of sustainability.
Artek is also transitioning away from fossil-based materials in packaging and the products themselves. Stools 60, E60 and NE60 are now available in an even more compact, entirely fibre-based packaging. Furthermore, Aalto Tables will start using a forest-based chipboard as of 2026. Meanwhile, Environmental Product Passports and Environmental Product Declarations have been made available for the most popular Artek products, providing transparency on the environmental impact of these products throughout their lifecycle.
These and other environmental initiatives will be rolled out across other product groups over time, while other new improvements are continually being developed.