Across manufacturing, there has been a drive to reduce the carbon footprint of products – not just furniture, but cars, televisions, refrigerators… you name it. At Boss, our policy is always to be transparent with our customers, and we currently include an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) with each piece of furniture we make.
An EPD is great. It tells you the carbon footprint of the product, the percentage of recycled materials within it, and the percentage of its materials that can be recycled.
However, an EPD only gives you a snapshot of the product’s carbon impact taken at the time the furniture ships. For example – one task chair might have a carbon footprint of 75kg CO2e and last for five years before it needs to be replaced, while another task chair might also have a carbon footprint of 75kg CO2e but is built to last 10 years.
Clearly, any organisation that’s serious about the long-term sustainability of its operations needs more than an EPD in order to make informed purchase decisions.
Our new Carbon Efficiency Ratings
To address this, we’ve engaged with Design Conformity, an organisation that specialises in the environmental certification of furniture design and manufacturing. Design Conformity applies a method called Product Carbon Footprint Assessment to arrive at a Circular Design Certificate. And within this certificate you’ll find a Carbon Efficiency Rating for the furniture.
The tag is very relatable – it looks just like the A to G energy labels used for appliances. But the important thing is that it gives the buyer a lot more information than an EPD. The Carbon Efficiency Rating is calculated using its carbon footprint in kg CO2e, the space it takes up in square metres, and how long it will last in its first life.
For products designed and manufactured with refurbishment in mind, thus avoiding landfill after their first life, the label estimates a second Carbon Efficiency Rating for second life. In addition, it states the percentage of recycled content, the percentage of the product designed for disassembly, and the percentage of the product that can be reused.
Using our example of the two 75kg CO2e chairs – the second one, with twice the expected life cycle, would be much more carbon efficient, which would be reflected in its rating.
A new way of looking at carbon
As a furniture manufacturer that has always focused on outstanding design, excellent materials and great build quality, the Carbon Efficiency Rating enables us to give our customers much more clarity regarding the overall carbon impact of their purchases.
While we already follow a design framework that considers a wide range of environmental factors, working with Design Conformity will enable us to apply a more systematic approach, focussed on reducing embodied carbon in the materials, the deconstruct-ability of each piece, and designing for reuse. Meanwhile, the robust certification process holds us to account across sourcing, the processing of materials, manufacturing processes, energy consumption, distribution and the product’s impact at end-of-life.
By factoring in the space furniture occupies and its longevity, we can start to appreciate it as a carbon asset as much as a business asset. While the monetary value of a chair or sofa might be written off over a few years, a well-made piece from the Boss catalogue might well serve your business for 10 years or more, receive a refurbishment and continue to be a valuable carbon asset for another 10 years in its second life.
The idea of carbon asset management represents a paradigm shift that might even change the future of business accounting. But for now it’s certainly an important new approach for organisations that want to embed sustainability and carbon reduction throughout their operations.
Third party certified by Design Conformity, Carbon Efficiency Ratings are compliant with the ISO14067 standard and GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 emissions reporting. Design Conformity is an approved Ecovadis Trading Partner with Gold accreditation.
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