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It can be challenging to find sustainable and green furniture for your home. Time and time again, companies use materials with chemicals that can be harmful or do not sustainably source their materials.
Luckily, there are several excellent options to source furniture sustainably for your home. These shops focus on green living and work to make products good for the earth and you. They bring a unique aspect to green products, such as using only locally-sourced materials.
Here we’ll break down 18 sustainable furniture shops providing green products and furniture online, and detail their products and how they are sustainable.
Breaking Down The Terminology
Before we get into the shops themselves, there is some terminology and organizations to know. They are used throughout the article to help you distinguish different types of sustainability initiatives used.
Terms
Reclaimed Wood: This is recycled wood. It is taken directly from its original home (typically a barn, factory, or warehouse) and used in new applications (such as furniture, cabinets, or flooring).
Locally-sourced: Locally-sourced materials are produced or found within 100 miles of the company’s location, which significantly reduces the carbon emissions needed to transport the materials.
Non-toxic and Organic: These materials have little to no substances in them that could be hazardous or irritating to people or animals.
Upcycled: Upcycling is a fascinating trend that takes materials that might be thrown away or discarded and uses them to create something of a higher value than the original material.
Carbon-negative: This means that it takes more carbon out of the atmosphere over a material’s life cycle than it emits.
Climate-positive: A climate-positive product will save more greenhouse gas emissions than it produces in its life cycle.
Certifications & Organizations
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): This nonprofit provides resources and certifications for companies looking to use sustainably-sourced wood in their products.
Fair Trade USA: Fair Trade Certified means that the materials they source were grown/harvested/created in safe working conditions with fair wages to provide workers sustainable livelihoods. It also ensures environmental protections in the farmers and other workers’ areas.
B Corp Certification: This certification requires companies to assess their environmental and community impact along with a plethora of other things to qualify.
The 18 Best Sustainable Furniture Companies
These companies bring a unique aspect to green products, such as using only locally-sourced materials, or partnerships with other independent, eco-friendly businesses.
Alabama Sawyer
Alabama Sawyer utilizes locally-sourced reclaimed wood. Its wood comes from fallen trees collected from businesses, municipalities, and even homeowners. It focuses its sustainability efforts on keeping trees out of landfills and sources over 90% of its materials locally from Alabama.
The company has a select number of high-quality products that include coffee, dining, side, and console tables, seating options, storage, shelves, cutting boards, and compost bins. Each piece is slightly different because it utilizes the wood available at the time. This small company has won several awards for the quality and sustainability of its furniture.
Medley Home
Medley Home is based in California and is dedicated to using sustainably-sourced materials. It sources all hardwood from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
The company uses bamboo, a renewable resource, in some of its sustainable furniture, and also uses certified foam and natural organic latex as fillers. Every material used on the sustainable furniture sold is certified by an organic-based organization or exceeds industry environmental standards.
Medley Home has a wide range of products, including couches, bedroom sets, accent chairs, dining room furniture, desks, office chairs, ottomans, benches, and more. It even has accessories like throw pillows and accent tables to help round out any room.
Simbly
Simbly is sustainable in both its material sourcing and manufacturing, using wood sourced from trees certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. It also ensures that everything used, such as finishes and adhesives, is non-toxic and food-safe.
The company manufactures its products in North Carolina and ships products disassembled in flat packs, which reduces the size of the shipping boxes by almost 80%.
Simbly specializes in tables and has a goal of being the first climate-positive furniture company. It has had a great start and partners with a nonprofit to plant one tree for every product they sell.
Avocado Green Mattress
Sustainable is not likely the first word that pops into your brain when thinking of mattresses. But Avocado Green Mattress has worked very hard to be carbon-negative and reached that goal in 2020.
In addition, it is certified organic and fair trade, has won numerous awards from environmental organizations and agencies and has been backed by the American Chiropractic Association.
The company specializes in mattresses but has other sustainable furniture products from bed frames to pillows and bathroom accessories. In addition, it carries just about anything for the mattress, like toppers, bases, and protectors.
West Elm – Sustainably Sourced Collection
West Elm is a trendy furniture brand. While it doesn’t source all of it sustainably, it has prioritized the materials used through its Sustainably Sourced Collection.
This specific collection uses materials from FSC-certified forests, ensuring the wood is eco-friendly. The company also was the first furniture company that joined Fair Trade USA and was on the list of the “Top 100 Most Sustainable US Companies” put out by Barron‘s.
The Sustainably Sourced Collection has a wide array of sustainable furniture available, from rugs and duvet covers to dining tables and dressers. It also offers chairs, barstools, sectionals, storage, desks, and more.
The Joinery
The Joinery has been a Certified B Corporation for over a decade. It manufactures its products in Portland, Oregon, and every piece of furniture is handmade in its facility.
It sources most wood from local Oregon and Washington forests that are FSC-certified. It also has a lifetime guarantee on its sustainable furniture, reducing landfill impact and making wood briquettes from their sawdust and waste donated to the community.
This fascinating company started with one person and has grown into a thriving business. It makes wood-based products for the bedroom, dining room, living room, and office primarily.
VivaTerra
VivaTerra was founded in California but has since made its home base in Virginia. It acquires products from artisans worldwide, has numerous fair-trade partners, and constantly innovates to make greener production methods.
The company has an extensive selection of items, from large indoor and outdoor furniture to stocking stuffers. It also carries decorations and various sustainable furniture pieces for every room and aspect of your home.
Crate and Barrel – Eco-Friendly Collection
Like West Elm discussed above, Crate and Barrel has an Eco-Friendly Collection that uses sustainably-sourced materials. For example, its teak is FSC-certified and uses plant-based polyfoam to fill the furniture. It also uses organic materials in its bedroom sets and sheets.
It has a wide range of furniture available in the Eco-Friendly Collection, including indoor and outdoor furniture, and smaller furniture such as ottomans, bookcases, nightstands, dining chairs, outdoor umbrellas, and more.
ABC Carpet & Home
ABC uses a series of icons to indicate how each piece of furniture is sustainable, which is incredible because you know your furniture’s exact impact on the environment.
It has an extensive list of icons from locally-made to organic to non-toxic, and down to the materials. It also uses upcycled and cruelty-free materials, which have distinct icons.
The company has a vast selection of items, from decor to large furniture, and also carries a large selection of rugs and lighting, which sets it apart from some other companies on this list.
Thuma
Thuma has put in a lot of work to ensure sustainable furniture. It has a GREENGUARD Gold certification which means it meets some of the highest standards in chemical emissions.
The company also partners with One Tree Planted, which plants a tree for every product sold. It also reduces a lot of waste in shipping by using recycled boxes and eliminating the need to use styrofoam.
Thuma has three products designed and sourced sustainably, including a bed frame, a nightstand, and a side table. It also has three accessories, including a tray, a sleeve, and a blanket, which is the entire product line, but the company executes it incredibly well.
Burrow
Burrow looks at the whole picture when it comes to green initiatives. For example, its furniture is pet-friendly and made in the US. None of the pieces have any formaldehyde in them, and overall, the company uses very few chemicals.
It has a lot of functional home furniture, including storage, and a wide variety of office furniture and tables. The company also has rugs and a lot of decor, including lighting, pillows, trays, and more.
Inmod
Inmod has some great eco-friendly, sustainable furniture. It uses wood and bamboo that is FSC Certified and many other products that don’t have Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
Inmod carries just about everything you might need, including a cat scratcher, and even offering cribs and playroom furniture. It also has a wide range of bedroom and office furniture, seating, lighting, and storage solutions.
Vermont Woods Studios
Vermont Woods Studios customizes all of its furniture, using only North American hardwoods grown in local forests. It also makes all of the furniture in Vermont, which reduces a significant amount of carbon emissions.
It has two significant partnerships. The first is with 1% for the Planet and donates 1% of their revenue to eco-friendly nonprofits.
The second is with the La Cruze Habitat Protection Program, which aims to help reforest land in Central America. Vermont Woods Studios also has a wildlife habitat on its 109-acre property.
The company has a wide range of furniture for bedrooms, living rooms, offices, dining rooms and also offers outdoor furniture. These products are incredibly high quality and come in a wide range of styles.
EcoBalanza
EcoBalanza runs its business out of Seattle, Washington, utilizing organic materials that are entirely non-toxic. Its wood comes from FSC-certified forests, and it exceeds requirements for the Global Organic Latex Standard, Global Organic Textile Standard, OEKO-TEX Standard 100, and has a GREENGUARD Certification.
Each of its products are designed to last. EcoBalanza specializes in couches, and has several collections and styles to meet your needs. It is a very focused company and provides the highest-quality and most comfortable sofas.
Haiku Designs
The motto for Haiku Designs is Good for You, Good for the Earth. It has several certifications, including E-1 (Off Gas Emissions Standards) and ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organization).
These certifications ensure that the construction of the sustainable furniture doesn’t produce any harm to the environment. Much of its furniture is also completely non-toxic and organic.
It has many pieces of furniture, including chairs, tables, bed frames, mirrors, nightstands, chests, chairs, desks, couches, and credenzas.
Pottery Barn – Sustainably Sourced Collection
Pottery Barn is a very well-known furniture company. It offers a unique Sustainably Sourced Collection, which uses reclaimed and recycled materials. While the company does not have a lot of general information on this collection, each piece has a description of its sustainability.
The company offers a lot of products from furniture to decor to glasses. It has large pieces, including entertainment centers, dining room tables and chairs, bedroom sets, and coffee tables.
Sabai Design
A considerable part of Sabai Design‘s sustainability is its trade-in and repair programs, which provide replacement components for their furniture. They also use upcycled and recycled fabrics and wood, and CERTIPUR-US Certified foam. In addition, it sources 90% of materials from within 100 miles of its production site.
Sabai has a small selection of furniture that includes a sectional, sofa, loveseat, chair, and ottoman. It also offers two pillows, which is key to its sustainability initiative in designing furniture that is easy to fix and trade-in.
Sprout Kids
Sprout Kids manufactures kids’ furniture, using Baltic Birch plywood and some hardwoods in its design. Each piece meets or exceeds stringent emissions regulations from the California Air Resource Board.
It also does not use any products with VOCs on its finishes. Nearly all packaging is recyclable, and it works to limit waste from the start of production to the finish.
This company creates excellent furniture for kids, from beds to climbing toys to wardrobes. There is also an adorable chair and table set for kids to play on.