August, 2009

Design / Merida Rugs — Comments Off
26
Aug 09

Merida rugs in Phoebe Howard’s Charlotte Storefront

Our friend Phoebe Howard, a wonderfully talented interior designer with storefronts in Atlanta, Charlotte, NC, and Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach, FL, has recently opened the Mrs. Howard and Max & Company stores in Charlotte, both of which include some of Merida’s natural fiber rugs.

We’re thrilled that Phoebe selected Merida for some of the gorgeous spaces she created here. On her choice of Merida for this high-profile space, Phoebe commented:

“Merida is a company that maintains high standards of excellence, quality of product and customer service, which mirror our values at Mrs. Howard and Max & Company. Merida has been part of our formula for successful decorating, with the same combination of vision and practicality, and we will always look to Merida for great products, both new and classic.” -Phoebe Howard

Check out a few of the photos from the Charlotte store below, and be sure to visit the Mrs Howard Personal Shopper blog for more!

Do you have a photo of a design project featuring a Merida rug? Submit it to marketing@meridameridian.com! If we select your photo, your name and web site will be promoted on our web site!

Kyoto sisal rug
Our Kyoto sisal rug was used wall-to-wall in many areas of the house, including the living room.

Another shot of the Kyoto rug in the living room

Another shot of the Kyoto rug in the living room

Our Kyoto sisal rug was used wall-to-wall in many areas of the house, including this dining room.

Kyoto sisal rug in the dining room.

Another room in the house used Bahia in Light Honey as a neutral base for more dramatic elements.

Another room in the house used Bahia in Light Honey as a neutral base for more dramatic elements.

Order swatches of Kyoto by clicking here!

Kyoto in Glacier, Locust and Tupelo

Kyoto in Glacier, Locust and Tupelo

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Sustainability — Comments Off
26
Aug 09

Sustainability and the chocolate market

Last spring, I took a class at MIT called “Sustainability Laboratory (S-Lab)” that gave me the chance to research sustainability in the chocolate market. Our class project was to research and analyze European markets to determine if they are attractive enough for U.S. companies to export to.

This project was very interesting because I was able to learn a lot about fair trade. Below is a chart showing the historic trend of the fair trade market in the UK. Even though coffee and bananas, which have relatively long histories as fair trade products, are a large part of the fair trade market, other categories, including chocolate, show stable growth.

Sales of fair-trade certified products in the UK

Sales of fair trade certified products in the UK

The MIT teams used three criteria to evaluate the attractiveness of the fair trade chocolate market:
1.    Fair trade consumption per capita
2.    Chocolate consumption per capita
3.    Fair trade retail value of each country

We used the chart below to integrate these three criteria. On the X axis is chocolate consumption per capita. Countries with higher chocolate consumption have more attractive markets. On the Y axis is fair trade consumption per capita, which shows each country’s tendency toward fair trade products. Countries with higher fair trade consumption have more attractive markets. The bubble size denotes the fair trade retail value. Countries with larger bubbles have stronger potential to sell fair-trade-related products.

s-lab2

From the above chart, we found that the UK, Germany, and Switzerland are very attractive in the European market. However, we also found that the U.S. market is prominent and attractive and has substantial growth potential. This finding was surprising for me. I had thought European countries were far ahead of the U.S. in terms of sustainability, but it turns out there is already a large market for fair trade in the U.S. What I learned from this is that companies should not target their sustainability products only to European countries but to the U.S. market as well.

-Koji Omiya

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Merida — Comments Off
24
Aug 09

Merida’s Youth Design Intern

Denise Korn, principal of Korn Design in Boston and founder of the non-profit Youth Design Boston, asked me if I’d be interested in mentoring a YD intern for the summer. Denise organized YDB to encourage and support talented high-school students interested in the arts. This program gives top young artists the opportunity to work in a real-world office environment.

I was lucky enough to hire graphic designer, Stacy Arman. Stacy has devoted her time to creating graphics for Merida’s new business cards, as well as developing patterns for rug designs.

Here’s Stacy in action working on designs for Merida’s Hospitality Collection!Stacy:Merida3

Stacy:Merida2

Please check back to read blogs posted by Stacy about her experience here at Merida.

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Sustainability — 1 Comment
20
Aug 09

Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)

For my undergraduate thesis, I wrote about the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The DJSI plays a very important role in evaluating  sustainability from a financial market standpoint.

The DJSI is an index that Dow Jones and SAM Group, a rating agency for social responsibility investment, established in 1999 as the first index based on SAM’s social responsibility investment criteria. SAM Group analyzes the largest 2,500 companies in the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index, and then selects 10% of those companies to be components of the DJSI. The DJSI was adopted as a benchmark by asset management companies in 16 countries, whose total assets currently amount to $6 billion.

SAM Group evaluates the companies based on three criteria: economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

Resource: Dow Jones Sustainability Index website

Source: Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Below is a chart that shows the DJSI’s performance since its launch in 1999. When compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500, its superior performance can be seen. After 2005 the DJSI exceeded its benchmarks (DJIA and S&P500). What’s more, the DJSI has been resilient in the market crunch in 2009. These phenomena, I think, represent the long-term superiority of sustainable companies. I believe the DJSI’s performance shows that social and ecological sustainability is consistent with economic sustainability.

djsi2

In addition, I think there is a positive feedback loop for the DJSI’s superior performance that is supported by the financial market.

djsi3
Corporations are increasingly motivated to be selected as composites of the DJSI. Here I have linked to comments by DJSI component companies PepsiCo and Novartis.

The DJSI is a fantastic measure of the sustainability performances of listed companies. But the DJSI cannot evaluate unlisted companies; therefore, we need other indicators to evaluate the sustainability of those companies.

-Koji Omiya

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