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Herman Miller now offers plant-based leather on its iconic lounge chair
You’ll probably still feel guilty about spending $6,395 on a chair and footstool.
For the first time in 68 years, Herman Miller is offering its Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman with a plant-based upholstery option that looks and feels like leather but is primarily made from bamboo. Herman Miller claims the plant-based leather reduces the chair’s carbon footprint by “up to 35 percent,” but von Holzhausen hasn’t shared specifics on how it makes Banbū, including the environmental impact of breaking down the bamboo and what other materials are used in the manufacturing process. Using bamboo to make pseudo-leather might have a smaller carbon footprint than using real leather from cows, but the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman still feature complicated designs, with layers of wood veneers that are glued together and molded into shape using presses that apply heat and pressure.
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