Story at a glance:
- Sustainable furniture companies share a commitment to products that take minimal energy and water to produce, use, and reuse.
- Many leading sustainable companies may use reclaimed wood, non-plastic alternatives, waste, or certified organic materials in their designs.
When it comes to green building and design, all aspects of a structure—inside and out—play a role in achieving its sustainability. Then there’s also its materials’ origins, manufacture, and reusability in a circular design that matter. It’s dizzying to contemplate all the pieces at one time. In this article we’ll focus on just the sustainable furniture equipping green buildings.
Here are five sustainable furniture companies.
What is Sustainable Furniture?
Keilhauer plans to make all of its contract furniture, including Swish (seen here) carbon neutral. Photo courtesy of Keilhauer
To arrive at a definition of sustainable furniture, it’s useful to begin with the central notion of sustainability itself.
“Sustainability is often described as ‘the ultimate team sport’ in the corporate world because we have to work cross-functionally with all departments—from accounting and finance to engineering, procurement, and operations and eventually to product development, marketing, and communications,” says Josh Belczyk, sustainability officer for Keilhauer, in an earlier gb&d interview.
As Belczyk implies, all of a company’s departments are united in placing sustainability at their center. When considering a furniture company, here are a few specific ways they can ensure their products are sustainable.
- Commission an independent cradle-to-cradle life cycle assessment. Being sustainable involves looking ahead decades down the line and making sure a product- or its parts – are durable enough to be useful then.
- Use primarily recycled or reclaimed materials. Sustainable furniture companies must remain leagues above the fast furniture industry and never adopt their practices or anything resembling them.
- Minimize inventory available at any given time. Building to order, or specializing in customizable, handmade pieces, will reduce the need for storage and eliminate the risk of damage or loss.
5 Sustainable Furniture Companies
These five sustainable furniture companies offer inspiring products for the office or home or virtually any commercial project.
1. Keilhauer
Keilhauer has long been attentive to its environmental impacts. It hired its first sustainability officer in 2003 and has offset 100% of its electricity consumption with certified renewable energy credits since 2006. Photo courtesy of Keilhauer
Making sustainable contract furniture that is carbon-neutral has always been the goal of Keilhauer. For this company, sustainable office chairs and tables begin with a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment for every product concept. “Since the company started we have worked on growing our sustainability practices and staying ahead of trends. It has always been important for us to do what is right, well before these metrics were in the spotlight,” Product Manager Maggie Keilhauer says in an earlier gb&d interview.
2. Avocado Green Mattress
Avocado Green Mattress. Photo by Melissa Kruse
Sustainable in every sense of that word, Avocado mattresses are 100% “natural, safe, and responsible” as the family-owned business mantra dictates. Constructed out of 100% natural Dunlop latex rubber, pure Joma New Zealand wool, recycled-steel support coils, and premium GOTS-certified organic cotton, most of the mattress is biodegradable, a sustainability hallmark. Since wool is a natural flame retardant, there’s never a need to use toxic PBDEs to serve this function in an Avocado mattress. Bonus points given because Avocado waits until you order before making your mattress.
3. Jonti-Craft
Jonti-Craft’s expansive collection of educational furniture—from colorful laminate options to sturdy Baltic Birch and modular lines—means there is an option for every learning space. Photo courtesy of Jonti-Craft
Healthy schools begin with nontoxic, sustainable classroom furniture constructed by Jonti-Craft. To complement their inside lines made of all wood, they now offer outdoor play equipment. “Their products are durable, easy to keep clean, and the teachers love them,” classroom designer Susan Pinckney of TSKP Studio—a regular client for over a decade—told gb&d in a previous article. “Where other manufacturers tend to limit themselves, Jonti-Craft doesn’t. They have a really broad selection. You know everything will work together, coordinate, and last.” She especially loves the fact that Jonti-Craft products met GREENGUARD Gold standards before that certification even existed.
4. Stickbulb
Stickbulb’s new RAY Sconce Collection incorporates sustainably sourced woods. Since its start Stickbulb’s mission has been to source only from demolished buildings, decommissioned water towers, trees that have already fallen down, and sustainably grown forests. Photo by Joseph De Leo
We can’t decide which Stickbulb trademark is our favorite: the reclaimed wood or the LED lighting. Both make for truly sustainable interior design. All their wood is sourced only from demolished buildings, decommissioned water towers, fallen trees, or sustainably grown forests. Their TREELINE collection delivers up to 1800 lumens per foot from a salvaged wood enclosure. The company proudly boasts it is the first consumer product to be made out of fallen trees from NYC’s urban forest.
5. Sabai
Courtesy of Sabai
BIPOC-owned Sabai surpasses the sustainability grade with their affordable Essential furniture line. The velvet fabric covering the Essential Sofa and Sectional is made using 100% recycled water bottles and has no VOC off-gassing. So, indoor air quality is protected. Its water footprint is zero, too.
Tips for Sustainable Interior Design
The living room of the Brooklyn Mass Timber House features floors recycled from the original timbers and integrated lighting from Stickbulb. Photo by Frank Frances
There are always more ways to practice sustainable interior design beyond the trite axiom: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Here are a few tips, especially when designing or selecting sustainable furniture.
- Include several gently used furniture pieces from vintage shops in your interior design. Not only will you be fully living in a circular design process. You’ll also be saving your client money.
- Develop databases of reputable sources of reclaimed wood, certified organic materials, recycled plastic manufacturers, etc., so they’ll be at your fingertips when you need them. Constantly update and expand the databases. Reach out to develop working relationships with company owners, and to find out what’s coming down the pipe related to their sustainable design material of choice.
- Embrace the notion of minimalism, inherent in sustainability, in your design. Preserving open spaces in a building by reducing the number of furniture pieces you include will release your clients from feeling encumbered by them.
