Sustainable Furnishings Council is a non-profit association specializing in green furnishings located in Chapel Hill, NC that educates and markets organizations in sustainability. According to their website, SFC’s goals are to raise awareness of the sustainability issue, assist companies in adopting good practices, serve as an information clearing house and create a symbol of assurance for consumers.
“We are a membership organization, serving as an umbrella,” Susan Inglis, SFC’s executive director, said. “In our opinion, the industry does not need more certifications, but it does need more understanding of the existing certifications and labels that are pertinent to our operations.”
Some of SFC’s core values are reducing unsustainable raw resources and known toxic substances in all phases of business, recycling in operations and purchasing recycled content and creating recyclable products, and seeking legally-logged wood from vendors who have a verifiable chain of custody. “The chain of custody is the systematic tracking of wood-based products from their origin in the forest to their end-use,” Inglis explained. Find out their other core values in their Best Practices Agreement.
SFC’s values cover the triple bottom line: what’s good for the planet, communities and economies. “All three of these aspects need to be must be taken into account in order for any plan to be effective,” Inglis said.
Currently, SFC has about 400 members from different sectors of the green industry, from supplying and manufacturing to designers and retailers. Check out their growing membership list.
For non-members, they have great resources on their website like how to green your textiles or cushioning choices and how to green your home (great for making every day Earth Day!). They also offer webinars to their members to further educate on sustainability issues, so members can in turn educate their consumers.