The Importance of Lifecycle in Sustainability – Design Series by VOLA

A core element of all VOLA’s creations and collaborations, sustainability and a commitment to having a bigger impact through using less drives the inner workings of the brand. Underpinning everything is a circular product lifecycle that sees ensures each aspect of the design and manufacturing process is an extension of these core principles.

From its earlierst beginnings, VOLA has been committed to a sense of environmental sustainability, devoted to continually improving and evolving practices and methodologies in order to fine tune its collective business practices. Imagined, designed and manufactured in Denmark, the entire product life cycle is controlled by VOLA, where each part feeds into the next. Not content to merely declare an assurance of sustainability, the brand places sustainability at the core of everything to ensure that each product will outlive generations, while also remaining relevant, contemporary and timeless along the way. VOLA’s factory manager, Peder Nygaard, shares his first-hand experience. “We have been recycling for many years – it’s a part of the culture and it’s always been a part of how every element comes together. The design self is not enough, ultimately, it is the process that determines real sustainability, and how we produce is extremely important.”

“We have been recycling for many years – it’s a part of the culture and it’s always been a part of how every element comes together.”

Through a circular approach to production, VOLA’s commitment to quality, durability and timelessness is cemented through their manufacturing and processes. As a company dedicated to longevity, there is an endeavouring spirit that sees no element spared and each contributing part considered. The importance of VOLA’s circular product lifecycle underpins this sustainable approach, encompassing all areas from craft to waste collection and the smelting foundry through to delivery. Peder explains, “every product that VOLA produces needs to be produced in a very exact and precise way and in a responsible manner. Sustainability is one of the first things architects are looking for, and the quality and craftsmanship means that we manufacture and design products which last for generations.”

From continuously analysing their processes through to ensuring only high-quality materials, VOLA sees it as a responsibility to have a significant impact and to imbed integral principles into every element of the business. The commitment to throwing away less is key to approach and the sourcing of materials from raw, honest and approved sources, in turn, generates less waste, while the waste that is created is of such high quality that it can be reused again and again. Peder further explains; “we only use the finest brass and stainless steel, from suppliers which we have a long-term relationship with. Because of our production processes we are able to recycle 100% of our materials. We have a constant focus on trying to throw away less and try and reuse more.” He gives the example of brass, which is not bought new, rather the product used is from the last production that has been reused for new bars. “For the whole product range, we are able to produce spare parts for products which were produced fifty years ago,” he says.

“Because of our production processes we are able to recycle 100% of our materials. We have a constant focus on trying to throw away less and try and reuse more.”

Since its initial foundations in 1968, there has been a focus on doing better and being better. And it is the matched fascination and respect for the natural world and its offerings which not only forms the foundations of VOLA and its collections, but also how it produces and operates in a resource-heavy environment. The initial sourcing of materials, continual improvements and efficiencies, production of internal parts from waste, recycling and reusing, and the control of water flow in each product – each of these individual efforts encapsulates this true passion. VOLA has been a longstanding commitment to sustainable practises, and the continued reassessment and re-evaluation of efficiencies only enhances the brand’s respect for nature and its borrowed resources.