By Adam Martin

A DUSTY WOOD shop on Palou Avenue in Bayview might be the last place you'd expect to find a peaceful sanctuary, but WoodShanti's showroom and office feels like a meditation garden. Furnished with custom wood cabinets and tables, and smelling vaguely of apple juice, the light, airy space conveys the harmonious attitude of its tenants. WoodShanti (909 Palou, 415-822-8100, www.woodshanti.com) is a collective whose five owner-operators produce high-end, custom furniture from reclaimed or sustainably harvested wood, and use only environmentally friendly finishes and stains.

Shawn Berry, the shop's ponytailed, casually dressed sales and design representative, explains some principles of sustainable wood. "The myth about forestry is that you get more by clear-cutting and planting a tree farm, but you don't. When you harvest old growth sustainably, you actually get more and higher-quality board feet" – meaning more usable wood. Berry explains how sustainable foresters know to harvest the sick or smaller trees, because the big, healthy ones provide a robust seed stock for the future. "If you cut all the good trees, you only regenerate the crappy ones."

WoodShanti, like any officially green business, must follow strict guidelines. Its stock of wood must be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and then again by an independent agency called Smart Wood, which tracks sustainable harvesting practices from forest to cabinet.

In addition to sustainably harvested and reclaimed lumber, WoodShanti is careful to use environmentally safe stains and finishes. Most of its products come from a German company called Livos, which uses natural linseed oil and plant resins instead of the more common petrochemicals, which can't be assimilated back into the environment and cause health problems for workers who have prolonged exposure to them. Linseed oil's molecules are about 50 times smaller than those in petroleum-based stains, so the oil penetrates much deeper into the wood. Laura King, the shop's lead finisher, keeps the stains in apple juice jars so they won't curdle in the air, decorating the wood shop with what look like jars of vinaigrette.

In spite of its environmentally harmonious production techniques and its socially harmonious collective setup, WoodShanti, now in its eighth year, has had problems integrating itself harmoniously into the neighborhood. "Our clients are really rich," Berry points out. The long hours and careful, hands-on attention of custom work necessitate a high price tag, he says. "It's too bad we can't do more work for people in the neighborhood."

But the shop is trying to be an active member of its community. It donated and installed some benches and a bulletin board in a community garden in Hunters Point (though they were later removed). The crew have been trying to start an apprenticeship program, in cooperation with local community activist group Chocolate City 2, to teach local youths the trade. When the city's glacial permitting process allows it, they hope to contribute to Literacy for Environmental Justice's "Living Classroom" project, a green building in Bayview's Heron Head Park.

Earlier this year the shop was evicted from its original location on Bayshore Boulevard, but its new space is both bigger and more immersed in the Bayview neighborhood. The group welcome the move, because they plan to expand their business, and they will continue their current community outreach efforts.

Working as a collective isn't always the smoothest or most time-efficient way to run a business, but Berry says the incorporated democracy of a collective is critical for the kind of operation WoodShanti's members want to run. "It's easy to fall back on some power structure," he says. "[Here], if you have any problem [with coworkers], you're the boss too. You need to step up and be a good communicator." The shop uses a consensus process to make decisions, which, Berry admits, takes more time and energy than a foreman calling the shots. "But we believe you get a much stronger decision this way. Everyone's bought in," he says.