This year marks Kada’s 12th year of partnership with the Interior Awards, having come on board from the start as a founding sponsor. We talk to Arabella Nelson about Kada’s impressive international product range and how their collective brand catalogue and company values influence Kada’s dedicated approach to sustainability and the lifecycle of their products.

What new products or innovations does the design industry need to be aware of?

Arabella: The Perch Stool from Steelcase is 100% recyclable. Made for circularity, the Flex Perch is the first furniture product that reduces the use of fossil resources through CCycling, which is an innovation in sustainability that transforms recycled content from the re-utilisation of waste from electronics production, once impossible to recycle into raw material needed for high-quality products.

What is your company doing to help specifiers and designers reach their clients’ sustainability targets or goals?

Arabella: At Kada, we’re committed to sustainable practice and a socially responsible supply chain. We use long-lasting, natural materials to create furniture solutions with a long-life cycle.

Our Product Stewardship Programme is designed to meet not only our own sustainability goals but also the goals of our clients and the larger communities around us. Steelcase, Vitra, Artek, Actiu, Bene, Schiavello and Dauphin are among the respected international partners represented by Kada in New Zealand. We draw upon our international partners to provide leading knowledge and solutions for best environmental practices.

If there was one thing you would like the industry to know about your company, what would that be?

Arabella: Kada recognises the importance of investing time and energy into the wider New Zealand community. We work directly with organisations to recycle/repurpose existing furniture, thus significantly reducing the impact products can have on the environment.

Kada is willing to engage with a worthy cause of any size — from donating and repurposing to sponsoring community groups — domestically and internationally (including relief funds, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Cyclone Gabrielle).

Kada is a privately owned and operated New Zealand company, which launched in 1987.

Owners John Gilbert and Dave White and a committed team are dedicated to bringing the best of New Zealand and international furniture to the market, with showrooms in both Auckland and Wellington.

Since its inception, Kada has continually developed partnerships with recognised global leaders in the industry to provide innovative products and concepts for inspirational living and working spaces, as well as public areas.

Kada represents leading brands Steelcase, Vitra, Artek, Schiavello, Bene, Framery, Actiu and Dauphin, all of which are design destinations for architects and interior designers.