By Jim Cavan

Jewett Farms & Company, Designers and Cabinetmakers, may be fast becoming a Newburyport staple, but when they decided to start advertising their impressive “green” credentials, they looked to that port city just north of the border for help. Jewett Farms designs and builds truly custom, furniture-grade cabinetry for all interior residential and commercial spaces – custom kitchens, baths, built-ins, libraries, offices, and furniture.
Last summer Jewett Farms – which boasts locations in both Newburyport and York, Maine – joined the Portsmouth-based Green Alliance, a sort of “green business union” for companies seeking to become more sustainable. To date the GA has helped over 80 businesses from throughout the region improve and market their green initiatives, providing full sustainability evaluations, marketing, and businesses-to-business networking opportunities.

While many businesses in the GA often arrive quite green in the ways of green, Jewett Farms came into the fold with a number of admirable initiatives and practices already in place: sourcing locally-harvested wood; using water-based, low-VOC paints, stains, and finishes; rendering invoices and other documents paperless; even providing excess sawdust to a local farm for animal bedding. While certainly admirable, such efforts only reinforce an image of Jewett Farms as a company as dedicated to local and sustainable business practices as they are to traditional New England craftsmanship.

Jewett Farms principal partner Elena Ruocco Bachrach states her company’s aims in no uncertain terms: "We are driven with quality and longevity firmly in mind, principles we consider very green,” says Bachrach. “And beyond that the products we create and use are in many cases the best and greenest out there.”

Co-founder Mike Myers echoes Bachrach’s sentiments: “We try to pay attention to our impact on the world around us,” says Myers, who founded the company along with Matthew Lord in 1999. “Everything is taken into consideration: how we design and build to the materials we source to our work practices in the shop and the studio."

Initially a one-man show, Jewett Farms really took off when, in 1999, Lord was contracted by Myers to help finish his kitchen. Myers was so impressed he became a full partner in the company, opening their first studio in York shortly thereafter. Nine years later, in 2008, Jewett unveiled their first satellite showroom in Newburyport.

Along the way the team has remained dedicated to improving their practices as much as their exposure. But while time has certainly seen them make good on the practice, Jewett Farms has also sought effective avenues for preaching – and teaching – ways to go green; their Continuing Education Series, held at their 58 Merrimac Street digs, features tutorials on everything from earth-friendly insulation to floor refinishing and beyond, all conducted by local businesses.

Bachrach sees such efforts as effective community outreach: “What we’re trying to do is provide a place where people can come and learn about different green options and how they really do save you money in the long run,” says Bachrach. “Which gets back to our belief that New England quality really does mean green in more ways than one.”

Jewett Farms may be the first Newburyport business to join the Green Alliance, but they certainly won’t be the last: the GA hopes to one day open a fully-operational branch in the city to truly engage the town’s growing green ethos.

For more information about Jewett Farms, please visit their website at www.jewettfarms.com or drop by the Studio at 58 Merrimac St. Newburyport, NH. They also have the Green Card for sale if you haven’t had chance to pick one up yet.