Earth911 Podcast: Room & Board Makes Furniture Sustainability A Top Priority

Meet Emily McGarvey, furniture maker and retailer Room & Board's first Director of Sustainability. The company, founded in 1980, recently became an employee-owned B Corporation. Room & Board has made significant efforts to reduce the environmental impact by engaging 12,000 U.S. craftspeople to make its furniture, achieving 95% sustainable wood sourcing, including using urban wood recovered for reuse in tables and chairs and making 51% of its packaging recyclable on the path to 100% targets in 2025. The global furniture industry is expected to see $765 billion in sales this year, according to a Statista analysis, and $133 billion of that in the United States. Reducing the carbon emissions associated with home furnishings — from sourcing wood and materials near producers to shortening supply chains to minimize the need for shipping — can make more sustainable choices available to consumers. For example, the retail chain Ashley Furniture has the seventh largest ocean shipping carbon footprint among major brands because most of its manufacturing is based in Asia. You can learn more about Room & Board at https://www.roomandboard.com/ Correction: A reference to Room & Board's recyclable packaging progress needed to be corrected. Rather than having achieved 89% recyclable packaging, the company currently uses 51% recyclable material -- its goal is to reach 100% by 2025.