Going Green With Your Furnishings

Today, we’re empowered to go green! Sustainable industries was first mentioned in 1990 in a story about a Japanese group reforesting a tropical forest.

Since then sustainability is not just a buzz word it’s real and it’s everywhere from farming to production processes in manufacturing and of course the housing construction sector.

Go Green Movement

Not to be left out of this go green movement is home furnishings and notably the use of timbers.

Brands well known and new are more discerning about the product and where it’s come from and how they can market it to attract customers. Yes, it’s not just done out of the goodness of their hearts, there is the monetary motivation that’s driving it.

What we do know is it’s working, we the consumer want to purchase our furniture from renewable timbers that are managed responsibly.

Tracing the source of your table’s timber back to the actual forest is more than a gimmick. It is appealing to our conscience and we’re willing to pay more for the product. We the consumer, will also share the information with our followers on social media and this too is good for business. Free marketing anyone? Yes please. Referrals are the best prospective customers.

An Australian mahogany french provincial furniture business, called Hudson Furniture say they made the move to source only sustainable timbers a few years ago and it’s worked for them. It was quite a radical move given the completion from the big brands and big box stores.

Manufacturing typically french furniture from timber that’s come from an Indonesian forest has been their best move. Plus their more radical move was to turn away from so called technology advancement in manufacturing by producing their furniture the old fashioned way by hand! Now that’s radical but it’s their USP (unique selling point) and arguably it shows in the finished product which discerning customers prefer.

Consumers today want to know more about businesses, including their practices and processes. This is the age of transparency and technology has enabled it. The power shift to consumers is disruptive and none more so than in housing.

Property Industry

In the property industry, all products used in new home construction are now under scrutiny from timbers to steel and below par materials and the businesses that process, manufacture, source and use them are named and often shamed when found out.

Going green is not usually cheaper. There’s a cost to sustainability yet we the consumer are all for it, preferring more traditional low carbon manufacturing methods like using our hands over machines. There’s a feel good story to tell, that we’re doing our bit to save the planet.

Seek to understand more about the table, it’s wood, where’s it from and how that forest managed. We’re so used to the just in time manufacturing where we can roll out of bed in the morning and visit the big box stores of which there are so many. You know them the Ikeas or Walmarts of our world to make an instant purchase even of the big items.

So when you’re next in the market for a new dining table, or sofa give yourself time to be inquisitive and enjoy the process.

Choose renewable eco-friendly materials and learn more about the businesses who are proud to share their philosophy on why they have chosen the go green route. The style can be anything from provincial french to modern slick nordic design. It’s just the materials that change and really isn’t real wood we can be proud of nicer than laminates? It sure is.