Have you ever wondered where the electricity in our Espoo studio comes from? The answer is closer than you might think. Just outside, our own solar panel park turns the Finnish sun into the power that lights our rooms, warms our coffee and keeps the till humming.
When we built the studio, we asked ourselves a simple question: what kind of footprint do we want to leave? Cigale & Fourmi has always been about things that last — terracotta pots that weather decades of frost, linen that softens with every wash, furniture that is passed on rather than thrown away. It felt only natural that the energy behind it all should follow the same thinking.
Power from our own ground
The panels sit quietly in the open field by the studio, facing south, doing their work without any fuss. On a bright summer day they produce far more than we need, and the surplus flows back into the grid for our neighbours to use. In winter the days are short and the sun sits low, but even then the panels gather what light there is. Over the year, they cover the studio's electricity — the lights, the heating, the kettle in the back room.
There is something satisfying about it. The same sun that ripens the tomatoes in our courtyard pots now also lights the room where those pots are sold.
Why it matters to us
We have never believed in grand gestures. Sustainability, for us, is a series of small, ordinary decisions made well: choosing suppliers who fire their kilns with care, favouring natural materials like clay, linen, wool and wood, wrapping your purchases in paper rather than plastic, and mending what can be mended instead of replacing it.
The solar park is one of those decisions — a larger one, perhaps, but made in the same spirit. We want the beautiful things in our shop to come from a place that respects the world they will live in. A frost-proof pot that spends fifty winters in your garden should not cost the earth to make or to sell.
What you can do
If you are thinking about solar power at home, we are happy to share what we have learned — the good and the practical. And if you simply want to make choices that last, that is where we can help most. A well-made pot, a linen cloth, a wool blanket: things you buy once and keep for decades are quietly the most sustainable choice of all.
Next time you visit the studio in Espoo, take a look towards the field on your way in. The panels are easy to miss, but they are there, working away in the daylight. Welcome!