Recently C.F. Martin & Company made an announcement stating that they are the first company in the U.S. to receive the Preferred by Nature Sustainability Framework certification. The manufacturer is based in Nazareth, and it was a plastic-free guitar they created to depict the company’s support for the work dedicated to the preservation and replenishment of coral reefs, which earned the company the award.

Preferred by Nature is a non-profit organisation which supports better land management and business practice. They also focus on land use, mostly forest, agriculture and climate impact commodities, plus related sectors such as tourism and ecosystem restoration. Their Sustainability Framework looks to show organizations how they can adapt their practices to make them more sustainable and focuses on four main elements: management and business, people, nature, and climate.

This guitar was created in 2021 and is the second plastic-free guitar the company has in production, with the first one being the 00L Earth guitar, created in 2001 by Martin. This guitar has since been discontinued, however the discontinued guitar marks when the company decided to go plastic free.

Despite discontinuing their first guitar, C.F. Martin and Co. continued to show their commitment to the environment and to promote awareness of the impact single-use plastics had on the environment, especially their effect on global warming, by creating their second guitar. The OM Biosphere is 100% FSC-certified, which a label distributed by the Forest Stewardship council. This label shows that the company is recognised for using products which were sourced from sustainable and responsibly managed forests. This can also be seen through the design on the guitar, which portrays a sea-turtle swimming above a colourful coral reef and clearly shows that this company has a very strong focus on helping the environment and using sustainable materials to do that.

Cindy McAllister, Martin Director of Intellectual Property, Community, and Government Relations, said, “Preferred by Nature and Martin share the same vision: ‘To pass on the Earth to coming generations in a good shape, we must urgently invent and adopt more sustainable ways of living, sourcing and trading.’”