Sustainability in action: ‘I’m always thinking about how we can reuse everything we make for a second, third, fourth or fifth time’
Ahead of Earth Day on 22 April, we visit Benchmark, one of the UK’s most sustainable furniture-makers — producing everything from bespoke hotel and office interiors to Christie’s newly designed rostrum — and discover that the afterlife of a piece is as important as its initial creation
An AYA high table and stools designed by Foster + Partners Industrial Design, being finished at Benchmark’s studio on Terence Conran’s former estate in Berkshire. Photo: Petr Krejci
Around two years ago, David Snowdon, honorary chairman of Christie’s in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and designer Jony Ive devised a plan to celebrate the auction house’s 260th anniversary with a new rostrum — a project they discuss in the short film above. When it came to deciding which cabinetmaking company would create it, there was one above all others that they wanted to work with: Benchmark.
‘You’re walking into a place where excellence is the minimum,’ says Snowdon of the company.
Based an hour west of London in the bucolic Berkshire Downs, Benchmark was co-founded by Sean Sutcliffe — who along with Snowdon was one of the first to enrol at Parnham College, a radical school for wooden furniture design founded by John Makepeace in 1977 in a dilapidated Tudor manor in Dorset.
As a student, Sutcliffe’s two core passions were craft and sustainability. When he graduated, around 1983, Terence Conran — who was rapidly expanding his furniture chain, Habitat, across Europe — offered him a workshop in the grounds of his country estate, plus £7,000 to turn his vision into reality.
‘The golden thread of our business is creating things to last for generations’: Benchmark’s managing director, Martin Penrose. Photo: Petr Krejci
Benchmark’s timber shed. ‘Slow-dried timber is more stable — the rule of thumb is one year per inch of thickness,’ says Penrose
Benchmark is still dedicated to craft and sustainability, but now occupies a 35,000-square-foot space on Conran’s former estate, and employs a team of about 70 people. At one end of the scale, it produces furniture designed both in-house and by a roster of emerging talents and leading names. At the other end, it creates bespoke interiors for offices, hotels, restaurants, universities and other institutions. ‘The golden thread of our business is creating things to last for generations,’ says managing director Martin Penrose.
At the core of Benchmark’s vision is a circular approach to everything it does, which usually starts with the wood it uses. ‘It’s important to educate clients from the beginning,’ Penrose explains. ‘How is somebody supposed to know that cherry is really sustainable, because it’s fast-growing and abundant in English forests? Or that American red oak is the most sustainable wood in the world, regenerating twice as fast as it’s harvested.’
Once felled, no part of a tree goes unused. Offcuts are fabricated into smaller components, and anything left over is turned into biomass fuel for Benchmark’s heating systems. ‘There is no such thing as waste — only misplaced materials,’ says Penrose.
One of Benchmark’s artisans working on a chair upholstered with organic, sustainable wool, which is also naturally fire-retardant. ‘As a furniture-maker, you inherently care about sustainability, because of a reverence for the materials that you’re working with’, says Martin Penrose. Photo: Aaron Hargreaves
In fact, in some cases, Penrose’s preference is to use no new wood at all. ‘Around 18 years ago, we made a huge table for a hotel in London. They called us recently to ask for a new one more in line with their updated appearance. I asked what was wrong with it, and concluded that we could do what they wanted using the old table.’
The team removed its fittings, cut it into a new shape and sanded off the dark stain to reveal the grain beneath. The result was a completely different table. ‘You have to advocate for this kind of approach,’ says Penrose. Even if it means reduced profits? ‘Well, why are we doing what we’re doing?’ he asks. ‘Is it to make money, or is it to create great things?’
This attitude was drilled into Penrose from the start. ‘I remember when we began using natural fibres, such as coconut and wool, for seating, replacing petrochemicals that are harmful to your health and to air quality. Someone said to Sean, “This is great, and no other furniture-makers are doing it. You should patent this.” Sean replied, “That’s absolutely not what I should be doing. I want to encourage everybody to do this. This is the right thing to do, and I will spread the word.”’
Planks of elm, used in pieces such as the Darby table (which is also available in oak or walnut). The boards for the tabletop are carefully selected to create symmetry of grain. Photo: Petr Krejci
Benchmark has often led the way in terms of green credentials and endorsements, but it’s clear from speaking to Penrose that his approach to sustainability is much more holistic than just hanging certificates on the wall.
‘How does wood make you feel?’ he asks. ‘What’s your response to touching it? Split movements, bits of colour in sap and resin pockets are considered defects by the industry. We challenged designers to work with them, and it turned out people embraced the results. It gave the wood more character, more warmth, and made it feel more alive.
‘This is part of biophilic design — bringing natural elements to our built environment. We’re now working with a scientist in Italy who measures the brain’s response to different timbers in order to better understand this relationship.’
The other crucial — but unquantifiable — consideration that goes into every Benchmark project is its afterlife.
The new rostrum unveiled in March 2026 to mark 260 years since James Christie held his first auction in London. Additional rostrums manufactured by Benchmark will appear throughout the year in salerooms globally
‘The rostrum is everything that Christie’s stands for,’ says David Snowdon. ‘It’s the theatre; it’s the display; the ambience, the excitement, everything that is on public display in a very personal object. This new rostrum exemplifies who we are’
‘The average office is refitted every six to 10 years. We want to drive that number up, so we don’t use poor-quality materials, such as MDF and plastic lacquer,’ says Penrose. ‘Instead, we embrace hardwood’s natural ageing process, and even celebrate knocks and dents. Someone will call me up and say, “Help! My new bar has a ring mark from someone’s glass!” And I’ll reply, “Wait until there are more — you’ll love it.” Honest materials age well.’
Everything Benchmark creates is also designed to be easily moved or taken apart, and comes with a Lifetime Repair Promise. And if an owner doesn’t want something repaired, Benchmark will reuse, recycle or donate it.
‘We’ve learnt a lot of lessons over the years that are now coming back to us,’ says Penrose. ‘I once received a phone call asking how to remove a reception desk we had made for an office in London. I said, “You know what, we will take it back. I can’t watch it go in a skip.” Later, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership wanted to carry out a refit using minimal new materials, so we repaired the desk for them. We used the Japanese kigumi technique to celebrate its cracks and previous life. Now I’m always thinking about how we, or somebody else, can reuse everything we make for a second, third, fourth or fifth time.’
In 2015, Benchmark used steam-bent European oak to make curved auditorium seating that reflected the monastic design of the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre at Worcester College, Oxford. Photo: Nick Kane
It’s a pioneering approach, but Penrose still doesn’t think he has got it entirely right. ‘As a furniture-maker, you inherently care about sustainability, because of a reverence for the materials that you’re working with. There is an appreciation for trees that have grown for a long time, and you want to make the best thing you can with them, and make objects that last and are appreciated,’ he says. ‘But we always need to keep pushing and challenging ourselves.
‘Benchmark isn’t a factory, and we’re not about efficiency. We are about craft and knowledge and skill. There is a lot of nervousness in our industry about AI and automation, but I think these things help people better understand what it really means to be a maker, which is an innately human trait. I actually think it’s a really exciting time.’
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