April 4th, 2011

When it comes to rating its products with regard to sustainability issues, IKEA is about to start keeping score – literally.

The Sweden-based retailer plans to start rating its merchandise with a scorecard, part of an emphasis on marketing more sustainable products. The IKEA Sustainability Product Score Card rates items based on 11 criteria, including use of less material, energy efficiency in the production phase, use of recycled content and improvements in transportation efficiency.

The goal: IKEA wants 90 percent of its sales of home items to be classified as “more sustainable” by 2015, according to its own standards. To receive that distinction, products have to have more sustainability aspects than previous versions or comparable goods.

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February 12th, 2009

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

If you’re working on making your furniture environmentally correct, but you don’t want to sacrifice on style, we’ve found a handful of websites with wonderful, elegant options. Today, we’re shopping for chairs.

Earthsake sells all kinds of furniture made from sustainably harvested wood and luxury eco-friendly fabrics. We like the Milan Puff chair (at left), which comes in a variety of bentwood frames and lots of fabric for the cloud-like cushion. They’re on sale now, and range from $315 to $415 based on the grade of fabric you select.

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June 30th, 2008

By John DeFore Solid-wood furniture is pricey and obviously involves harvesting trees, but the alternatives aren’t necessarily much more appealing: Particle board, while transforming waste materials into something useful, is usually glued together with resin containing the carcinogen formaldehyde. A newer innovation, the “zBoard,” hopes to supplant particle board and MDF in a wholly eco-friendly [...]

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