Searching for sustainable furniture can be tricky, especially if you are new to the world of conscious consumerism. We have curated a detailed guide to aid your search for better, greener furniture that won't harm you or our beautiful planet.
Before we dive into the details, it is important to ensure that you familiarize yourself with the basics of sustainable furniture, and understand what the term 'eco-friendly' actually means.
The most recognized element of sustainable furniture tends to be the materials a business uses to create their items. Reclaiming materials enhances resourcefulness, by reducing the demand for new supplies, and helps to minimize waste.
At Mojo Boutique, we only use recycled and upcycled organic materials, such as reclaimed teak wood, to ensure that each product is completely natural and eco-friendly. This also means that your furniture is completely free from artificial, toxic chemicals.
Eco-friendly furniture companies sell products that are crafted with longevity in mind. An important principle of Mojo Boutique, which constitutes us being a conscious furniture brand, is that we reject short-lived trends.
By thoughtfully designing timelessly beautiful products that are built to last, the need to re-purchase homeware is eradicated. This means your household will have a low carbon footprint as fewer purchases will result in less waste, minimizing the amount of energy used to create new furniture.
Another way that sustainable furniture brands maintain a low environmental impact is by employing slow production. Every piece purchased from Mojo Boutique has been handmade-to-order so that we can confidently reduce unnecessary emissions and effectively eliminate waste.
Aside from positively reducing pollution, slow production also means that the utmost care and precision has gone into every piece on our site, ensuring that you receive a high-grade product that will graciously serve your home for a lifetime.
A truly sustainable company executes every effort to ensure that its workers are equitably treated by repudiating the corruption of sweatshop labour.
At Mojo Boutique, we adhere to fair-trade practices by working closely with the gifted artisans of Indonesia. As part of this ongoing unity, we ensure that the livelihood of our beloved creators is fully supported through a healthy work environment, equal and fair wages and transparent communication.
It is essential that environmentally friendly furniture companies use eco-conscious packaging. Many climate-positive establishments do this by using upcycled materials to protect their products during transit. Here at Mojo Boutique, we exclusively use eco-friendly and plastic-free packaging to maintain our conscious ethos and help you to uphold a zero-waste household.
Practicing sustainability is a moral obligation that won't just help us, but also the future generations of our planet. It is important to consider our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren when making decisions that may exhort harm to our environment.
It is important to understand and recognize that the continued practice of unsustainable habits will deplete the quality of our earth, posing a detrimental threat to future civilization. Adjusting our day-to-day routines can go a long way in saving our earth, and ensuring a stable, sustainable future for all living species.
By altering our consumerism to support eco-friendly establishments, we can help save our planet from unnecessary harm. Many eco-friendly furniture brands have actions in place that constitute towards fair employment and a cleaner atmosphere, and a healthier planet, like our initiatives at Mojo Boutique.
Sustainability also ensures that you are actively making a positive societal impact. The heartbreaking occurrence of sweatshop labour is frequently found throughout the furniture industry, meaning workers are not taking home fair wages, and are likely not being treated with respect and equality.
Every single employee at Mojo Boutique is valued for their talent and phenomenal efforts that ensure you are purchasing a stunning product. It is incredibly important we shine a radiant light upon our creators to give credit where it is deserved. You can meet our wonderful craftspeople and discover their individual works by viewing their profiles on our website.
It is standard practice for eco-friendly furniture companies to use organic, raw materials that are ethically sourced. By purchasing from a sustainable furniture brand, you will be welcoming environmentally friendly materials into your home.
Eco-friendly furniture brands reject using harsh chemicals and volatile organic compounds (VOC) because they can release carcinogenic toxins into your home, and tend to pollute our earth during the manufacturing process.
By avoiding such substances during production, both your home environment and our planet's atmosphere will remain uncontaminated, ensuring a healthier quality of life. At Mojo Boutique we only use the finest of mother nature's resources, including pure coconut oil to give our pieces a glowing finish.
It may be difficult for you to find small-budget, affordable eco-friendly furniture. This is because most sustainable establishments use high-grade materials, unlike mass-production companies which make short-lived, plastic furniture.
Although slowly made homeware is higher priced, it will make an awarding investment. Purchasing eco-conscious furniture will save you money, and work out cheaper in the long run as this investment will save you from having to make continuous re-purchases.
Because cheaper, unsustainable brands use low-quality materials and spend little time creating each piece, it is highly likely that their items won't last. We use only the purest sustainably sourced wood at Mojo Boutique so that we can guarantee longevity with every piece, ensuring your item will live with you for a lifetime.
Sustainable materials are ethically sourced and completely organic, free from nasty carcinogenic substances and volatile particles. When purchasing from a company advertised as a sustainable furniture brand, be sure to check whether they use natural and recycled materials such as FSC-certified wood, organic fabrics, recycled steel, and so forth.
At Mojo Boutique we only use sustainable, up-cycled eco-friendly materials when crafting our furniture. Familiarizing yourself with the most common eco-conscious resources will assist your search for sustainable homeware. Here is a list of our favourite materials to work with:
Reclaimed Wood:Â The resourceful practice of using reclaimed wood to create eco-friendly furniture is an incredibly beneficial way to reduce waste and sustainably manufacture a new product. If you are looking for a DIY project, we highly recommend seeking solid wood furniture
At Mojo Boutique, we exclusively focus on using up-cycled and recycled wood when crafting every product. We only use responsibly sourced wood by taking in used items and up-cycling it using 100% natural processes to hand-strip the wood of chemicals and preservatives, giving it a new, refreshed appearance.
Bamboo: Most eco-friendly furniture companies adore bamboo because it is rapidly renewing (growing 1mm per 90 seconds!) and requires little resources and labour to grow. Did you know that bamboo is also considered to have a higher comprehensive strength than wood, bricks, and even concrete?
Organic Cotton: We all know and love cotton, but organic cotton is even better, especially for soft furnishings. Free from bleach, dyes and other chemicals, organic cotton is softer, safer and more environmentally friendly than the cotton you find in mass production.
Rattan:Â Rattan has recently become a favoured material for eco-consumers. Aside from being a resilient, fast-growing, easy-to-harvest wood, rattan also provides furniture with a gorgeous, warm finish. Our team at Mojo Boutique work closely with harvesters to ensure we do not cut premature stems,
Banana Leaf:Â Banana leaf is celebrated for its flexibility, impressive size and waterproof properties, making it the perfect material for outdoor furniture and food containment. This material has been historically used for both decorative and religious purposes. Cultivation of banana leaves dates back to 500BC, so we can positively assure you that this organic material has been effectively tried and tested!
Coconut Shells:Â Coconut shells are immensely durable, making them ideal for kitchenware. After draining coconuts for their water the shells can be resourcefully used to make stylish, sturdy food bowls.
Sustainable furniture companies are on the rise, but unfortunately, so is the deceitful practice of greenwashing. Many businesses within the furniture industry are attempting to cash in on sustainability, regarding conscious consumerism as a trend rather than a movement for a cleaner planet.
Unlike ethical furniture brands, these companies often produce on a mass scale, contributing to tons of harmful emissions and mistreatment of their staff. They employ a slick marketing spin to exploit conscious shoppers by promoting misleading information that encourages people to purchase from their business.
In most circumstances, these companies will advocate that they incorporate certain aims, policies and ethical practices into their production to reduce their carbon footprint and minimize waste. However, we often discover that such claims are made to deflect our attention from the full story.
If you find yourself experiencing some uncertainty about a specific company, you can verify whether they are an eco-friendly furniture brand by searching for the name of their enterprise on the Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC).
It is common for big companies to claim that they have incorporated recycled materials into their products, but more often than not, they are using the bare minimum. When shopping for sustainable furniture, investigate what percentage of the resources used are actually recycled.
The term natural is ambiguous and does not always mean safe. Furniture companies take advantage of vague language to entice sustainable shoppers into buying their products. Although these establishments claim to use natural materials, it does not mean that they are harmless.
For example, formaldehyde is used by hundreds of companies and is recognized as a naturally occurring substance, but it can be incredibly toxic and lead to serious health problems. When searching for sustainable furniture, make sure you look out for harmful chemicals and toxins in the material description.
In recent years, it has become more frequent for furniture brands to advertise their carbon-offsetting efforts, to appear eco-conscious. For example, a company may claim that they are 'planting one tree with every purchase'. Such attempts are generally poor and do not sufficiently compensate for the mass-scale pollution these brands are causing.
At Mojo Boutique, we work hard to avoid pollution at all costs. However, we recognize that certain operations (such as transporting our furniture) have an environmental impact. We subsequently calculate how much CO2 we emit with every action, to ensure that we can effectively offset our carbon footprint, and positively give back to our earth. Find out more about our exciting projects here.
This tactic is the safest way for businesses to appear eco-friendly without directly saying anything dishonest that may land them a lawsuit. By designing their products with natural, organic tones, and using packaging that implores green imagery, companies can mimic the aesthetic of clean, sustainable furniture.
If you are in search of budget-friendly homeware that is still in keeping with conscious consumerism, it is worth exploring a secondhand furniture market. Places such as Goodwill is a terrific sustainable furniture store that receives an abundant influx of lightly used items and vintage furniture every day.
Secondhand furniture stores provide you with a wide variety of items to choose from. People tend to donate all kinds of wonderful pieces, such as dining tables, accent chairs, bed frames, you name it!
We sincerely hope that this article has informed you about the key factors to consider during your search for an eco-friendly furniture brand. We kindly invite you to discover our rich collection of organic, artisanal, bohemian furniture.
Whether you are in search of dining chairs, coffee tables, modern sofas or maybe even home decor, we can assure you that you will find a charming new edition for your home that is environmentally friendly.
