Carbon storage in wooden furniture – CO2 online calculator and booklet

Funiture event

By producing and procuring sustainably sourced wooden furniture, you support practices that help mitigate climate change. Discover how PEFC can help you enhance your contribution.

How does wooden furniture store carbon and what difference does sustainable forest management make? Do you want to know how you can calculate the quantity of carbon you’ve removed from the atmosphere through your responsible furniture choices?

We shared all the answers in our last webinar, with experts demonstrating how sustainably managed forests sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) differently from unmanaged forests and approximately how much carbon wooden furniture can sequester from the atmosphere.

Additionally, we also introduced the carbon storage in wooden furniture booklet and calculator to support companies in calculating the amount of CO2 sequestered in their wooden furniture.

This resource and the webinar in general provide a clearer picture of how our individual actions and consumption habits impact the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Our speakers are professionals with extensive, hands-on experience in the field. Hubert Inhaizer, a forest owner himself, and PEFC International’s expert on sustainable forest management. In addition, Francesco Negro, Associate Professor in Wood Technology, University of Torino, Italy, providing his insights into how the carbon storage booklet and calculator can support you.

The furniture industry can make a significant impact in tackling the climate crisis

As a major user of wood, the furniture industry can play a significant role in our efforts to remove, capture, and store carbon from the atmosphere at a meaningful scale. With the demand for wood set to rise by 37% by 2050, the furniture industry must take action.

It's crucial to develop a plan to measure and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint in response to the ongoing climate crisis. By doing so, the furniture industry can play a vital role in meeting and even surpassing our collective climate goals.

With these facts in mind, PEFC has developed a booklet and calculator for carbon storage in wooden furniture. This tool will help furniture industry companies, stakeholders, and consumers accurately measure the carbon storage potential of the wooden furniture they purchase, produce, or sell.

The furniture industry will have a critical role to play in mitigating the climate crisis and this resource will form an essential link in the effort towards reducing the carbon footprint of the furnishings industry at scale. 

Sustainable forest management maximizes the capacity of forests to capture and store carbon

When forests are managed sustainably, their potential to capture and store carbon is maximized. PEFC’s Sustainable Forest Management practices promote forest health and vitality through ecosystem rehabilitation, biodiversity preservation, and pest and climate damage monitoring. This includes maintaining a balance between tree harvesting and regrowth, which helps to preserve carbon stocks and enhance the capacity of trees to capture and store carbon in the medium and long term.

Additionally, sustainably managed forests offer a renewable resource in the form of wood and timber, which continues to store carbon long after harvesting. The PEFC-certified wooden furniture you produce, buy and sell is storing carbon and will continue to do so for the lifetime of the product.