Gunlocke Seat Back Goes Red-List Free Using Mushrooms

Myco Board, the engineered wood alternative made from mushroom “roots,” has found its first furniture application in the Savor guest chair seat back. Binding approximately 2.3 pounds of corn stalks for each chair back, mushroom tendrils (mycelium) grow for a while on the nutrients of agricultural waste and then are dried under heat and pressure, resulting in an extremely strong, stable material.

Gunlocke had been aware of Myco Board, which is manufactured by Ecovative, for a few years, according to Roy Green, director of stewardship at Gunlocke. But it wasn’t until its engineers complained that the expensive plywood in the seat back was splitting that the company decided to try Myco Board. “It was cost-competitive, had a green story, and also helped us solve a particular design problem,” Green told BuildingGreen. Myco Board is biobased and is certified Cradle to Cradle Gold, and because it can grow into a molded shape, it also eliminates the waste usually generated when cutting plywood to form (the mycelium dies during processing).