Best sustainable furniture
Bizarrely, there's no hard and fast definition of what constitutes 'eco', 'green' or 'sustainable' furniture. The nine pieces we've selected below, however, all take their environmental impact into account.
Some, like Cohda's wacky chair made from recycled milk bottles, are produced from a material that diverts waste out of landfill and improves the market for recycled materials.
Others, like Benchmark's Victoria Table, use a renewable material such as wood from audited and well-managed forests. You should look for the FSC and PEFC badges on wood furniture -- they're a sign of trust that the timber is from a forest that's not being excessively exploited or depleted. The Victoria table is sourced from timber in both schemes.
Then there are the furniture-makers trying to green up their production processes. For example, Warren Evans, which makes the FSC-certified bed below, heats its manufacturing facility with a biomass boiler. The boiler runs on waste wood which would otherwise go to landfill. The Fairtrade Furniture Company, meanwhile, makes a point of shipping its Jepara chair to the UK instead of air-freighting it.
As well as the green halo, the big bonus of buying sustainable furniture is you're not buying an identikit living room. Unlike the IKEA coffee table all your friends own, no one's going to come for dinner and exclaim that they've also got a table made from an old washing machine drum (like Reestore's outlandish Silvana).
Benchmark Victoria Table
Chaos Shelves
Cohda RD4 Chair
Reestore Silvana Table
Ryan Frank Strata Lower Slot Stool
Sixixis Elefant Table
TING Sling
The Fair Trade Company Jepara Chair
Warren Evans King Size Shaker Bed
