Sauna companies make many false claims – look for third-party evidence that confirms what they say.

Wood

We use only FSC-certified (and PEFC certified) hypoallergenic poplar wood -- no other kind of wood is present in our saunas. Also, we only use solid poplar wood -- never any veneers, plywood or fiberboard.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization that sets high standards for managing a sustainable forest. This ensures that the forest is not destroyed for its wood, that there is minimal impact on the plant and animal life in that forest, and that the forest was legal for logging in the first place. Certification requires forest management systems that promote environmentally friendly non-chemical methods of pest management avoiding the use of chemical pesticides. Certification companies certify forests to the FSC’s standards, as well as the entire chain of custody of the wood (all of the intermediary companies that handle the wood or products made from the wood) so that you can be certain that the wood in a product did originate in an FSC-certified forest. Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund all support and encourage FSC certification.

Without FSC-certification, you might be supporting:

1) According to Greenpeace, “Forest destruction produces about one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions - more than all the cars, planes, and trains in the world.”
2) Today, illegal logging is rampant in Asia and other parts of the world. After it gets converted into products, there is no way to know where the wood came from. Money from the illegal logging gets used by organized crime. Much of the wood sourced in Asia used for building saunas is suspected of coming from illegal logging, particularly on the least expensive products.
3) The loss of forests increases the rate of extinction of the inhabitants of those forests.
4) Destruction of old-growth forests (the most ecologically damaging source of wood).
5) Plantations using chemicals to produce wood cheaply as possible.

High Tech Health International’s FSC ID Code is FSC-US-0170.

You can find our company name on the list of resellers at the FSC website.

Electronics / Heaters

Materials

Our electronics are third-party certified to meet Europe’s RoHS requirement (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) by the European testing organization TUV SUD, who also ensures our sauna meets Europe’s strict safety requirements.

The RoHS requirement restricts the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and brominated fire retardants. Lead and fire retardants are very common in electronics. Lead can cause a range of health problems including behavioral problems, learning disabilities, and seizures. Brominated fire retardants persist in the environment, accumulate in living organisms and cause liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity.

Shipping

And to top it off, we have partnered with Greenshipping.com to bring the sauna all the way from the factory to your doorstep without contributing to the increase of carbon in the atmosphere. In fact, High Tech Health ensures that our offsets exceed the minimum making us actually a carbon-negative company (our internal electricity come from wind Xcel Energy’s Windsource program).

Greenshipping developed highly advanced models to calculate the greenhouse gases produced during the transportation of the product and then provides high quality carbon-offsets to effectively reverse the effect. But not all carbon-offsets are created equal -- some have unverifiable claims attached to them. The best carbon offsets, such as those used by Greenshipping which are provided by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) do not have this problem and better than that, they fund the construction of NEW renewable energy projects which will displace polluting fossil-fuel sources .

Eco-conscious Glue

Our wood glue is non-toxic, non-outgassing, water-based, and solvent free.

It's actually not a big deal to find and use simple, extremely safe, wood glue, though we cannot say for sure that all companies do. Wood glue is not the same as other glues so it’s a mystery to us why some sauna companies say you should be terrified of it. We suspect it’s because their small operations couldn’t afford the large presses necessary to use glue.