EcoTimber | Lewis Buchner

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Lewis Buchner
Chief Executive Officer
510.809.8205

Lewis Buchner grew up in New Jersey, the son of a furniture designer and manufacturer. He attended Antioch College in Ohio where he majored in film.

In 1973 Lewis started a woodworking business in San Francisco specializing in custom commercial furniture. Buchner Design Studio was involved with many of the early commercial interiors projects for San Francisco design firms during the 1970's, 80’s, and 90’s.

From 1988 to 1992 Lewis was on the board of the Architectural Woodwork Institute.

In 1992, Lewis was invited to join the board of directors of the Tropical Forest Foundation based at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. TFF pioneered the methods and economic analysis of "low impact logging" in the tropics, and Lewis visited experimental logging sites and attended government workshops on this issue in Brazil in 1995.

In October 1995 Buchner Design Studio acquired Architectural Hardwoods and Veneers, the largest architectural veneer supplier on the West Coast. The new combined business was renamed Vida, and specialized in veneer panel manufacturing, furniture manufacturing, and ecological wood products. Vida’s major projects included the San Francisco Public Library and a 700 ft certified veneer wall at the San Francisco International Airport.

In 1996 Lewis traveled extensively to forestry operations and veneer slicing mills in the U.S. to source certified veneer, and was eventually successful in arranging for the first such veneer to be produced. AFE was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to produce certified veneer panels in the same year.

In 2003, Lewis became the CEO of EcoTimber.

For the past ten years Lewis has been the Treasurer of San Bruno Mountain Watch, an environmental organization focused on endangered species and habitat issues on San Bruno Mountain, south of San Francisco.

Lewis lectures frequently about sustainable forestry issues at schools and architecture firms. He was the recent board chair of the Certified Forest Products Council and a board member of the Certified Wood and Paper Association.