Our Story
Geolam was built on a sound philosophy. In the 1970s, Sadao Nishibori, a dealer in tropical timber from Japan, invented an entirely innovative wood composite. He found his inspiration on a trip through the forests of Indonesia, where he had seen at first hand the consequences of widespread and uncontrolled deforestation. For a cultured, educated and sensitive man, raised in the Shinto tradition with a profound respect for nature, it was a shock. Sadao Nishibori subsequently dedicated himself to the invention of a tropical wood substitute, more respectful of the environment: the wood composite.
The qualities of rare tropical hardwoods served as a standard in developing the Geolam wood composite. He took recycled softwood and recycled polymer resin (polypropylene) to create a material that can now look back on four decades of refinement and whose defining features include a natural wood look coupled with outstanding durability. This was the dawn of the ‘wood- polymer composite’ (WPC), a material inspired by nature and returning the favour by its low carbon footprint.
