Lisa and Stephen

For Lisa Grove and Stephen Becker, it started with a mountain bike ride. Then came a dog, a  marriage, a kid and, eventually, an environmentally responsible furniture company.

Stephen is a gifted craftsman and designer from the Kansas prairie, attending University of Kansas and, later, owning a cabinet shop in Lawrence, prior to moving to Portland.

Lisa Grove is a leading Democratic strategist and marketing whiz. She’s also the daughter of a timber executive and toured mills throughout Oregon as a young girl. Her brothers spent summers cutting trees and fighting forest fires while Lisa and her sister created sparks at home with raging family debates about timber policy.

Little did she know that she would find a way to marry her values to the forests she loves. While her father is no longer with us, she knows he’s tickled with what IF Green has become. And his former employer, Potlatch Corporation, has greened up its operations with over one million acres of FSC forest land.

Stephen was always the kid who zagged when everyone else zigged. Gifted with his hands, it is his inventor genes that first get noticed. While some use computers, every piece of furniture is developed completely inside his big brain. He loves to work without drawings, something we don’t let him do as often as he’d like.

Together, with a big initial assist from their dear friend and trusted compatriot, Tim Tracy, IF Green was launched in the summer of 2005. We did it big and green – on the roof deck of the ecotrust building as a fundraiser for the ReBuilding Center. Over 300 people attended and we raised $5,000 for a very worthy cause.

We are proud to help our customers understand why where they sit (and sleep and eat) matters. Our goal is to promote sustainable practices and use our furniture to tell a story. It’s about local jobs, healthy forests and vital rural communities. It’s being green. IF Green.