Taylor Guitars has been included on Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. The prestigious list honors businesses that are making the biggest impact on their industries and culture as a whole, with Taylor being included in the in the Manufacturing Sector for 2022.

Taylor’s inclusion is the result of the company’s groundbreaking sustainability initiatives. While each is different, all are linked by Taylor’s commitment to forest restoration and socially responsible business practices:

• The Ebony Project – The Ebony Project is a venture to create a more socially responsible value chain for the supply of ebony instrument components. In 2019 the project recorded the largest ebony planting in history in the Congo Basin of Cameroon. In 2021 the Ebony Project was awarded a five-year, $1.4 million grant as part of a broader $9.4 million forest conservation initiative in Cameroon funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The project includes fruit tree planting in participating communities, which addresses food insecurity issues in the Congo Basin.

• Urban Wood Initiative – In 2020, Taylor launched an innovative urban wood sourcing initiative with the California company West Coast Arborists, Inc. (WCA), which manages over 300 municipalities and public agencies throughout California and Arizona, caring for over 6 million trees. The initiative gives select trees in need of removal from California cities a second life as high-value instruments. Taylor introduced its first guitar featuring urban wood (Shamel ash) in 2020, followed by more models in 2021.

• Koa and Hawaiian Forest Restoration – Taylor and supply partner Pacific Rim Tonewoods currently run a venture called Paniolo Tonewoods. Their mission: To work toward preserving a healthy future supply of koa for musical instruments by regenerating native Hawaiian forests that include koa trees. In June of 2021, Paniolo planted over 3,000 koa and more than 800 mixed native tree species on 10 acres of 564 acres of Paniolo-owned property on the north end of Hawaii Island. Over the next decade, the plan is to plant 150,000 trees on this property.

Taylor’s planting initiatives are not merely about securing wood for future guitars, but about supporting the needs of participating communities, which include a healthier environment and economic opportunities.

Look out for Taylor’s inclusion in Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies issue (March/April 2022), available online here, as well as in-app form via iTunes, and on newsstands beginning March 15, 2022.

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