Data Insights by 2050 Materials: The Furniture Industry’s Lack of Environmental Information to Drive Decision Making

The graph prepared using data from the 2050 Materials API highlights a telling deficit in the availability of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for furniture, a sector contributing notably to global carbon emissions, especially due to the high frequency of fit-outs in commercial buildings.

The visualization shows a disparate distribution of EPDs across different countries, with a significant concentration in Europe and a few scattered instances in North America and Australia.

Despite the furniture industry’s substantial environmental footprint, the data reveals only 230 EPDs globally, suggesting a significant gap in life cycle assessments (LCAs) for these products.

This paucity of EPDs indicates a broader issue within the industry:

As regulatory pressures and consumer demands for transparency and sustainability intensify, the furniture industry faces an urgent need to enhance its environmental data practices, thereby enabling more informed and eco-conscious choices.

Want to understand more about the state of the industry, trends, and analyze environmental impacts around construction products? Check out the 2050 Materials platform and reach out to get access to the API.