The number of companies in the sustainable home furnishings category is growing steadily. A little digging should yield enough options to satisfy the needs of anyone who is shopping for new furniture.
The companies featured here are representative of dozens more working to green their own products, as well as the practices of the multi-billion dollar furniture industry. The consumer will likely find different shades of authentic "green-ness" of various companies. But each one featured here shares a strong commitment to making furniture from sustainable materials, and lessening the negative environmental impact from the work of producing it.
Cisco Brothers Furniture Insists on Sustainable and Natural Materials
Cisco Brothers Furniture is a rare discovery. This full-service furniture manufacturer in south central Los Angles makes casegoods and uphostered products. It is represented in showrooms throughout California with a prescence in New York, Florida and North Carolina. What sets this is company apart is its all-out commitment to using sustainable, natural materials to produce green furniture products.
Cisco Pinedo, who founded the company in 1990, uses only forest-certified woods, and has systematically eliminated the many materials that are petroleum-based from his company's production processes. Instead, Cisco's company uses things like cushions that incorporate natural latex, down, feathers, or soy-based foam. Pinedo's personal story – he was a 13-year-old when his family emigrated from rural Mexico to urban Los Angeles – is worth learning, too.
Chroma Lab Uses the Rainbow to Make Old Furniture Green
Now this is just plain fun: Chroma Lab's one-of-a-kind, repurposed furniture. It's fun, of course, but the rainbow brights on the Fruit Stripe Dresser and the Candy Apple Coffee Table (don't miss the pictures below; click to enlarge them) are doing serious work by keeping cast-off pieces of furniture out of the landfill.
Chroma Lab is a pair of Boston-area designers, Alicia Cornwell and Tony Bevilacqua. They say on their website that they have been "transforming neglected but promising pieces of furniture" since 2008, because "the greenest piece of furniture is one that already exists."
Chroma Lab uses low VOC-emitting paint for most of its color applications, and is currently testing several zero-VOC clear coat finishes as a greener alternative to the high gloss finishes currently used.
Turning House Furniture is Saving Beautiful Wood and Forests, Too
Turning House Furniture in Virginia is a new company that is saving both forests and landfill space – welcome byproducts to its furniture production. Its CEO, Spencer W. Morton, is a fourth generation furniture maker, a member of the family that started Bassett Furniture Industries.
Turning House uses a unique source for its products – the wood found in the flooring and support beams of massive old abandoned industrial buildings. These structures "were once integral parts of our nation's industrial period . . .textile plants, factories, and mills . . .long since abandoned," according to the company's catalog. The company claims that its careful deconstruction process makes it possible to recycle 98% of each structure used as a source for wood.
The Old Wood Company Makes New With Reclaimed Wood & Recycled Steel
Another new company using reclaimed lumber from abandoned buildings, The Old Wood Company has a product line that is clean and contemporary looking (examples below). Darren Green, the owner and one of three fulltime employees of The Old Wood Company, had worked for the eco-conscious Lee Industries (see more about Lee below) before starting his own business in 2007. Many of his products feature a combinatioin of reclaimed wood and recycled steel.
At its website, the company also states that it strives to use "environmentally friendly and health conscious finishing methods, companywide recycling/upcycling efforts, and ethical business practices."
Copeland Furniture and Lee Industries are Industry Leaders in Sustainability
Copeland Furniture, a Vermont-based manufacturer of hardwood products, and Lee Industries, an upholstery manufacturer in North Carolina, are two examples of long-established business that are recognized as leaders on sustainability issues within their industry. They have received awards for their efforts from Industry groups like the Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC) and the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA).
Lee Industries is one a of handful of companies who are founding members of the SFC. It now offers a product line that features soy-based cusions, recycled fiber filling for pillows, and water-based finishes for wood frames that are made of products from certified forests.
Copeland Furniture, also a founding member of the SFC, is the recent recipient of the Sage Award which the AHFA uses to recognize the pursuit of environmental excellence by those within the industry. Copeland was cited for "its exceptionally focused approach to sustainable business operations," as well as its 8 product groups that qualify for the Forest Stewardship Council label, and for the fact that 90 percent of electricity used in its manufacturing comes from low emission sources.
Consumers still looking for help finding green furniture products can find suggestions at 3 Great Eco-Resources for Furniture Shoppers.
Additional Source:
- Denver Post, "Green roots Cisco Bros.' furniture line," August 30, 2007
- EcoSalon.com, "Furniture Lab Experiment With Facelifts," November 27, 2009
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Kathlin F. Sickel - Reading and writing in print and online. So much to uncover and report. Join me; let's see what we can discover.
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