simple + green

Shopping for and buying furniture is not something I enjoy doing. My wife is an interior designer, so this is her forte, but not mine. It’s even less enjoyable if you think about where the wood came from, what kinds of varnishes and chemicals were applied, not to mention who is providing the labor.

It’s becoming more commonplace to see FSC-certified woods being used in lines carried by major retailers. Outstanding!

I recently stumbled on a few new sources relating to sustainable and FSC-certified furniture, two of which can really help to guide you where to buy:

1. Sustainable Garden Furniture guide from the National Wildlife Federation: promotes the concept that you can protect tropical forests by limiting your furniture purchases to those made with FSC-certified wood. This resource provides a scorecard and list of major retailers that carry FSC-certified Garden Furniture.

Crate and Barrel got 4 Stars for their selections, Restoration Hardware and Smith and Hawken didn’t even respond to the NWF survey.

2. Green Guide’s FSC-certified Furniture Guide: a short list of retailers that carry FSC-certified furniture. One important note here is the disclaimer they added to this article:

[Editorial note: Bill Mankin and the FSC's Ned Daly have alerted The Green Guide that it is incorrect to say FSC certifies products "sustainable," prefering the term "well-managed." To read their comments, click here. We have also removed the term from the title of the web version of this article.]

We have several pieces from The Wooden Duck in Berkeley and love them!

3. Sustainable Furniture Council: purely an educational resource. The SFC is a non-profit who strive to promote sustainable practices among furniture manufacturers.

In their words:

The Sustainable Furniture Council is a non-profit balanced coalition of industry players created to promote sustainable practices among manufacturers, retailers, and consumers alike with a public tagging program to identify good choices.

Their mission statement:

The Sustainable Furniture Council is a non-profit industry association founded at High Point, NC in October 2006 to promote sustainable practices among manufacturers, retailers, and consumers alike. The SFC recognizes the overwhelming scientific consensus that our world is experiencing dangerous global climate change. SFC members acknowledge the tremendous urgency, and will take immediate steps to minimize carbon emissions, waste stream pollutants, un-recyclable content and primary materials from unsustainable sources from any product platform under our control.

Any if not all of these resources should be used when reviewing the best sources FSC-certified, sustainable and/or environmentally-friendly furniture.

Do you have other sources we can add to this list?