Are you looking to reduce your carbon footprint? There are many furniture and mattress manufacturers that offer more sustainable options that don’t sacrifice on style. Today, many furniture companies lead with eco-friendly policies, allowing you to craft a healthier and happier home. Including sustainable wood furniture, reclaimed wood furniture, bamboo furniture, more sustainable mattress options, and patio furniture made from recycled plastics, eco-friendly furniture has seen an uptick over the past couple of decades, with millennials and now Gen Z-ers also leading the demand. To this end, we've put together a list of some of the best eco-friendly furniture options for your home.

Sustainable Sources and Manufacturing

More than its parts, the whole manufacturing process is involved in creating sustainable furniture. The responsible use of natural and renewable resources is one of the most obvious considerations. You can look for different certifications, such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood furniture to ensure sustainable practices.

Learn about HOM Furniture’s Green Initiatives.

Another thing to keep in mind is the life cycle of the product. The process for creating sustainable furniture may involve green practices and policies enacted by eco-minded companies; however, those noble goals mean very little if the product requires constant maintenance and replacement. This culminates in furniture that's not only ecologically sustainable but physically sustainable, being highly resilient, stable and durable while being easily maintained to create a cleaner living space.

Sustainably Sourced Wood Furniture

Wood furniture can be a sustainable option—when it is responsibly sourced. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an important tool to promote responsible forest management. What does that mean? It includes a commitment to avoiding wood from unacceptable sources, including:

• Illegally harvested or traded timber
• Timber harvested in violation of traditional or civil rights
• Timber harvested from areas in which high conservation values are threatened by poor forest management
• Timber harvested from areas being converted from forests to plantations or non-forest use
• Timber from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted

There are many furniture companies that are leading the way in utilizing FSC-certified wood. For instance, HOM Furniture’s Daxton collection of bedroom furniture is constructed out of solid FSC-certified European pine wood that has been completed with a 15-step finish process that accentuates the natural wood grain. The warm wood tone will add a natural feeling to your room as well a modern style to your decor.

The Shiloh Grove collection is also made with solid FSC certified European pine wood with a 15 step hand brushed grey finish. The bed has a modern look with a solid headboard and footboard that shows off the horizontal panels and features metal trim on the sides to add an industrial flare.

Of course, you can find sustainably crafted furniture outside the bedroom. For instance, International Furniture Direct (IFD) uses renewable resources to craft spectacular furniture options, like coffee tables and accent tables, that are sure to meet your needs, both aesthetically and consciously. Committed to the planet, IFD implements environmentally friendly practices including, planting approximately 40,000 trees annually in a 14-year reforestation project, using water from IFD’s own treatment plant to reduce water usage, using wood-combustion kiln dryers which allows for wood chip recovery instead of natural-gas kilns to use lumber more efficiently, transitioning to solar energy panels, and producing their own packaging using recycled cardboard.

Reclaimed Wood Furniture

Built using recycled timber from old structures like houses, warehouses, barns, and industrial sites, reclaimed furniture created a name for itself beginning in the 1970s. However, the industry remained stagnant until a slow growth began in the mid-90s with an increase in modern deconstruction practices over traditional demolition. In the modern era, reclaimed wood furniture has seen tremendous popularity as the green living trend has grown. Available in unique designs and patterns (every piece is truly one-of-a-kind!), reclaimed wood furniture provides similar durability and performance as any other wood furniture options.

One of the most common sources of reclaimed wood furniture is the longleaf pine. Longleaf pine was once one of the most widely used construction materials during the early years of the United States to the mid-1800s, although a maturity rate of 200-400 years made cultivation nearly impossible. Over time, those buildings were torn down or renovated. Instead of throwing that beautiful and robust timber with its natural ability to resist mold, savvy craftsmen recycled the material, some of which has been re-used to create splendid furniture, including tables, chairs, bed frames, drawers, and nightstands.

Bamboo Furniture

Bamboo furniture options are crafted with natural grass vegetation and feature significant renewability as bamboo only requires three to five years to reach maturity. Quality bamboo furniture also features heightened durability and strength comparable to traditional wood options and includes water, stain and warp resistance.

The company Greenington offers premiere options for bamboo furniture, using the sustainable resource to craft beautiful bedroom furniture, dining room furniture, accent pieces and more. Greenington harvests each culm of bamboo by hand and wastes nothing by utilizing 100% of the harvested bamboo, including the sawdust, in an effort to preserve the forest's ecosystem. These bamboo furniture options are designed to suit contemporary tastes while highlighting the natural beauty of the bamboo. For instance, furniture made from solid bamboo may be finished with a baking process instead of a typical stain. This allows the product to be all-natural and show off the stunning bamboo grain. Certain pieces show off a streak of tiger balm that illustrates the natural beauty of bamboo.

Sustainable Mattresses

Another place where sustainability is trending is the bedroom, and there are different mattress companies that offer greener practices and products.

Using nearly all the materials they gather, eco-friendly mattress companies work to craft sustainable mattresses with high layer counts with thick, plushy, and above all, comfortable bases. For instance, mattress-giant Tempur-Pedic exemplifies the no-waste philosophy by crafting its line of memory foam mattresses while achieving zero landfill waste in the manufacturing process.

Made in the USA, PureBliss crafts its mattresses with simple and harm-free materials to create a mattress that offers the user the purest sleep possible. Talalay latex is a natural material that is hypoallergenic and odor-free thanks to the lack of harmful chemicals or petroleum found in other latex sources. This genius design means that these mattresses are certified baby-safe while maintaining their breathability and eco-friendliness.

Learn more about the advantages of natural latex mattresses.

Plastic Patio Furniture

Recycled patio furniture contains around 90% post-consumer materials, creating the modern material called Polywood. Highly resilient, plastic patio furniture resists weather of all seasons, including rain and snow, and resists drastic shifts in temperature. These benefits offer the environmentally conscious an excellent solution without sacrificing morals, performance or design. Polywood, like high density polyethylene (HDPE) is used to craft benches, dining sets, Adirondack chairs, deep seating sets, and outdoor accessories.

With a drastic rise in popularity, sustainable furniture offers substantial benefits to the environmentally conscious—without lessened comfort or functionality.