DeepStream’s Sustainable Design Philosophy
Sustainable Design creates solutions for our customer’s operating challenges that have the lowest total cost over time for the environment and our clients while providing the highest satisfaction rating by users.
DeepStream products incorporate deceptively simple, aesthetically-pleasing solutions using the principles of sustainable design to minimize environmental impact through timeless design, material selection, expert American craftsmanship, durable construction, and replaceable parts using principles of Sustainable Design to maximize durability while providing a high quality of Life for our dedicated staff.
Frustrated by today’s throw-away society, where products designed for the lowest possible initial cost barely make it home from the store before breaking? We know we are, and that we are not alone.
In response, we have dedicated a good part of our lives to designing products with replaceable parts that will last for many generations, providing the lowest cost of ownership over time, and reducing the impact on our shared environment.
Designed for simple assembly and replacement of all components, and backed by our “Core Replacement Program” and Lifetime Structural Warranty, our products can be easily repaired and refinished, and ultimately recycled once again instead of tossed away as rubbish after great inconvenience and waste of precious time, energy, and money.
Materials are a key consideration in sustainable design, and one of our goals is to reduce or eliminate the needless destruction of the world’s tropical rainforests through longevity and material substitution. Tropical hardwoods, for the most part, take several generations to grow, and carpenter-built wood planters will start falling apart within a few years.
A key criteria of sustainable design is to ensure that our products made with these valuable resources last as long as possible and to provide recycled alternatives to old growth lumber. DeepStream’s wood planters will last for decades, all parts are replaceable, and there is no paint or powder coating to fail. For comprehensive, comparative information about planter design and materials, with a detailed discussion of why we design and build planters like we do, follow this link to our Planter Blog for a complete analysis.
Our Mariner and Audubon modular wood planter systems, trash bins and recycling receptacles can be built with 100% HDPE food-grade Recycled Plastic Lumber (RPL) — think cutting kitchen boards and recycled plastic milk bottles. The RPL we use is backed by a 50-year pass-through manufacturer’s warranty against rot, splintering, and decay. Unlike wood, HDPE is especially resistant to fading.
Our 10-year-old RPL planters look as good as new. Unlike wood planters and bins used outdoors that take considerable maintenance to maintain a fresh look, RPL looks as good after decades in the weather as it did when it arrived. RPL, while soft and easily scratched in the wrong application, does not absorb stains, which makes it a great material for trash receptacles and recycling bins, as well as garden planters.
Recycled plastic lumber does not absorb stains or grafitti, used with DeepStream’s proprietary marine anodized aluminum extrusions it can be pressure as there is no paint or powder coating to fail. These important attributes makes RPL perfect for food outlet, parking lots, transit station and other high volume locations with exposure to the public. We strongly encourage you to seriously consider the cost benefits and the long-term appearance of RPL over tropical hardwood, and the environmental statement you will be making by selecting this material for your project.
Click this direct link to read more about Recycled Plastic Lumber vs. Tropical Hardwood
Regardless of your material selection, rest assured that DeepStream will be planting a small forest in your name through the non-profit Trees for the Future program.
As of early 2021 with our customers help we have planted over 500,000 trees and improved countless lives. For every product that DeepStream’s American craftsmen create for our clients using wood or recycled plastic lumber, we plant trees in your honor through Trees For The Future, which uses its grassroots tree planting program with the goal of ending hunger and the cycle of poverty by training farmers to regenerate their land, create self-sustaining businesses that train more farmers, feeding themselves and their villages in a virtuous cycle.
- Audubon, OPUS, or Oahu receptacles = 100 trees each.
- Mariner planter = 50 trees each or per section of a modular planter.
- Chameleon or Nautique bin = 20 trees each
- Planter liner, fiberglass, concrete, or plastic garden planter = 10 trees.
The Environmental Challenge: Destruction of the World’s Tropical Rainforests for hardwood
To meet this challenge, a key criteria for all of DeepStream’s products is sustainable design, ensuring that our products made with these valuable resources last as long as possible, and providing recycled environmentally responsible alternatives like recycled plastic lumber and readily recyclable material like HDPE plastic and aluminum.
FSC certification does not mean that the wood you are ordering is actually sustainable or even legally logged.
According to the Yale School of Forestry, while estimates vary, it is thought that between 30 and 50% of all certified Tropical Hardwood shipped into the United states has been “Greenwashed,” meaning that shipments have been provided with falsified and counterfeit documentation. In some countries like Peru, it’s estimated that 90% are illegally logged, devastating their Amazon watershed. For detailed information on the Yale study, follow this link: “Greenwashed” Timber and FSC certification”
DeepStream’s Effort to Convert Customers from Tropical Hardwood to Recycled Plastic Lumber
DeepStream makes it easy and cost-effective to go Green and stop contributing to climate change.
By selecting recycled plastic lumber for your order, you will be preserving the world’s rainforest, the cooling lungs of the earth, while creating a sustainable market for post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste.
Products made with non-structural Recycled Plastic Lumber planks (RPL) inside DeepStream’s unique structural aluminum frame are a perfect choice for outdoor placement, while making a strong environmental statement. Please discuss saving this diminishing resource for future generations with clients that specify tropical hardwoods.
Our recycled plastic lumber requires no maintenance and lasts for decades without fading, saving your clients money while looking better over time than wood ever will. DeepStream’s products in recycled plastic lumber have been outselling tropical hardwood since 2016.
If you do order natural hardwood, with DeepStream’s trademark anodized aluminum extrusions, unlike carpenter-built planters, you know that your purchase will last for decades and not waste this precious resource, a key consideration of sustainable design..
Separate from the environmental concerns about using real tropical hardwoods, we highly recommend RPL Planters, especially in locations such as shopping centers and parking lots, locations serving food and drinks which stain natural wood and make a mess, or anywhere sanitation and easy maintenance are a concern.
Because DeepStream’s trademark planter legs are anodized, not painted or powder coated, RPL planters can be pressure cleaned.
Still not convinced?
Given the time and expense necessary to keep natural hardwood looking good, and the damage done to the rainforests to harvest it, versus the “set and forget it” ease of using recycled plastic lumber, you should give serious thought to which you will select for your project.
If you have questions, need more information, or would like to discuss your project, please call Sheila at (305) 857-0466 or email her at dsdmiami@gmail.com. Sheila has decades of experience to call on as a developer, general contractor, and property manager, with thousands of planter installations and remediation project experiences to help you with budget-saving ideas.
