Used with permission of the Rainforest Alliance
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Nils at work in the shop
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As much of the
world enters the deep freeze of February, the wooden hearth of a
sauna has an appeal almost equivalent to a tropical vacation. Solhem
Sauna of Duxbury, Vermont tries to integrate its hand crafted, custom-designed
saunas into a landscape -- placing them by a pond, or in a wooded
glen -- making the outdoors part of the experience. Solhem has now
extended this respect for natural resources to the very source of
their products -- the world's forests -- by achieving certification
by the SmartWood program of the Rainforest Alliance.
Nils Shenholm, founder and principal
of Solhem Sauna, began researching and designing saunas in 1986,
and in 1990 tested the first prototype. Production began with 1-2
saunas per year and has steadily increased to 6-10 year. While Solhem
(Swedish for "Sun Home") Sauna's approach is to continue
the tradition of sauna as a free-standing structure, separate from
the dwelling place, Shenholm also designs indoor saunas. His unique
approach to sauna building combines a thorough understanding of
modern construction technology as well as a deep respect for tradition.
The saunas are assembled from both certified and non-certified solid
softwood components, in compliance with the FSC's stringent percentage-based
claims guidelines.
Text Copyright ©2002 Rainforest Alliance.
