Taylor Guitars have made it onto Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the 10 most innovative manufacturing companies of 2022.
Selected for their market-leading sustainability initiatives, Taylor’s commitment to forest restoration and socially responsible business practices is well documented.
Guitar Player recently covered Taylor’s highly respected Ebony Project – a unique venture that is enabling more socially responsible supplies of ebony for instrument manufacturing.
In 2019, the Ebony Project represented the largest ebony planting initiative in the Congo Basin of Cameroon and was awarded a five-year, $1.4 million grant as part of a broader $9.4 million forest conservation project last year by the Global Environment Facility.
Further demonstrating how sustainable manufacturing practices can take inspiration from materials that are all too often cast aside, Taylor began an urban wood sourcing project in 2020.
Working with the West Coast Arborists company, Taylor has shown how trees removed from urban areas can be given a second life as high-quality acoustic guitars.
These models have proved to be very popular indeed. With over 8,000 Urban Ash guitars sold, such instruments now rank among the most popular acoustics in North America.
Furthermore, Taylor undertook a new initiative last year in order to preserve the supply of koa for musical instruments. Working in partnership with Pacific Rim Tonewoods, the Paniolo Tonewoods venture aims to regenerate Hawaii’s native forest.
As a result, more than 3,000 koa trees along with another 800 native species have been planted by Paniolo Tonewoods as they continue working towards their goal of 150,000.
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