One day, I went to a housewarming party. The man proudly told me that all the furniture in his house was made of solid wood. But when I visited his house, I found out they were not solid wood but manufactured wood with veneer sheet. He already paid a lot of money for this. So, I cannot tell him the truth.
What a sad story. When I heard this from my friend, I was so sorry. However, it happens a lot. Also, with growing interest in the environment, some companies are greenwashing their products. Poor consumers innocently believe what the companies tell and think they are buying good furniture for themselves and the environment. I am writing this article because this is not always true, and I hope you are not the next poor man.
Wood Furniture doesn’t mean it is natural.
There are various kinds of wood for making furniture. In other words, even if a company generally describes the material as wood, it may not be the one you think it is. Wood for making furniture can be divided into two types: Solid wood and Manufactured wood.
1) Solid wood is a natural product. It is safe and environment friendly, however, it can be contracted or expanded. Also, it is expensive. 2) Manufactured wood such as MDF, PB, plywood is a great substitute. It is made after powdering wood or cutting it into thin slices. Thus, it has less risk of contraction and expansion, and most of all, it is cheap. Besides, it looks similar to solid wood with a veneer sheet. Be careful not to confuse between solid wood and MDF or plywood with the sheet. Even if the company says the material is wood, it may not be solid wood.
However, the most significant difference between them is the usage of adhesive. And it makes a huge gap in the amounts of formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is an organic compound with a strong odor. Every wood emits some amount of formaldehyde, but manufactured wood emits a lot. It is because it is commonly used in manufactured wood as adhesives. The problem is when people are exposed to formaldehyde when it is released into the air. It can harm the eyes, nose, throat, and etc. It can even cause some types of cancers. In other words, manufactured wood can be hazardous when some amounts of formaldehyde are leak into the air. So, there are grades and regulations for formaldehyde levels in furniture.
In 1980, the formaldehyde emission standard was established by Germany and became the basis of the European standard. Since 2004, European standards have been introduced; E1 (release ≤ 0.124 mg/m3 air) and E2 (release > 0.124 mg/m3 air). Also, they have a rule that indoor furniture should only use E1 grade wood. On the other hand, Korean standards have 4 classes (SE0, E0, E1, E2). Wood with SE0, E0, and E1 is allowed for indoor furniture and KC (Korean Certification) is given. Different country’s standards cannot be accurately compatible because of different methods and measurement units. And some Korean companies try to greenwash abusing the situation where there is no international standard of formaldehyde emission. They advertise their E1 grade furniture as eco-friendly and safe with the KC as evidence. The difference between E1 and E0 is enormous and Korean E1 grade wood is restricted in most of Europe since it has bad effects on human health.
Fortunately, there are conscientious enterprises. I would like to introduce one in Korea. Hanssem is the most popular furniture brand in Korea. According to K-BPI (Korea Brand Power Index), it has been the top kitchen furniture company for 21 years and residential furniture for decades. Although they were not the first company to apply, now they only use E0 grade for all the furniture they make. Not only wood but also finishing materials and subsidiary materials such as adhesives used in furniture have been changed to eco-friendly materials. They use 3 stage verification. At first, it checks harmful substances released by the material itself by verifying raw materials. Then they re-examine after they finish furniture manufacturing. It is noteworthy because 70% of dangerous materials are mainly released by unfinished sections. Hanssem cares not only about wood material but also about the finished furniture itself. But it also has a limitation. Unlike other European companies, Hanssem doesn’t offer sustainability reports. Furthermore, it is difficult to find information about environmental values or efforts for sustainability. On the website, consumers can only find information full of products themselves. It is a common thing in Korean furniture enterprises. Even if you barely find some information related to sustainability value, it is too abstract.
On the other hand, many European companies explain sustainability as their core value. For instance, Vitra provides a sustainability report every year. Vitra is one of the most famous furniture companies in Switzerland. They transparently disclose the certificates and ecology information of each piece of the furniture. The products have many certifications, such as The Blue Angel, GREENGUARD, REACH. Vitra also focuses on creating eco-friendly products while monitoring and improving the process. „Sustainability is like morality for us,“ said Rolf (former CEO). „As people live morally rather than talking about morality, we make long-lasting products based on sustainability.“ It’s time for consumers to think about environmental health.
Think about the environment as well as human health.
The information above is only about human health. It is important, however, not only for humans but also for the Earth. We need to be concerned about where the wood comes from and how it is chopped down. The most powerful method to protect forests is the legally prescribed ban on deforestation. The European Timber Regulation (EUTR) has been introduced in 2013 to prohibit illegally harvested timber. It supports sustainable forest management.
Switzerland is also famous for swiss forests and the wood industry. Fortunately, the percentage of forest reserves out of the total area is 63% in Switzerland. And the federal council of Switzerland insists that there is no risk of illegal logging since wood from Swiss forests is under control. Besides, there is a law declaring an obligation for informing about wood and wood products, so a consumer can easily find the information about wood species and where it comes from. However, there is no legal basis in legislation for prohibiting illegal wood in the market. They can care about wood when it is imported or exported to the EU, which has a timber trade regulation. Hence, I would like to introduce Forest Stewardship Council certification.
FSC certificate guarantees that products safely come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. With FSC certification, you can easily figure out which companies use the right wood. For example, IKEA works with FSC to focus on the responsibility to manage forests. More than 98% of the wood is either FSC certificated or recycled. To maintain the sustainable supply from the forest, they cut trees for a long time and make clear areas in the forest. In this area, the forest can be regenerated. IKEA also insists that they try to work with suppliers to ensure the wood-based materials come from sustainable sources. Since it is impossible to stop using trees for wood furniture, companies should be concerned about forest management.
How to choose wood furniture?
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- Don’t take the material with a grain of salt.
- Check the Formaldehyde grade including the finishing process.
- See how the trees were cut down.
At first, let’s choose the wood furniture fit for you. As I mentioned before, you should check the detailed information of the material. I’m not saying you can buy the best wood furniture. At least, however, let’s not be fooled by the word ‘wood’. Remember how various kinds of woods there are. You learned the difference between solid wood and processed wood through this article. Hence, I believe you can distinguish which kind of wood is used for the furniture.
Second, you have to check the formaldehyde grade. Even though some company uses MDF, it could be the E0 grade. Therefore, even if you want to buy processed wood instead of wood because of the price and furniture management, you can be safe from formaldehyde. But remember that there are no international standards for formaldehyde emission, so make sure that which one the company uses.
Last but not least, think not only about your health but about the Earth. Although the furniture is harmless to human health, keep in mind there is a possibility that there are harmful effects on the environment in the process of making. Check whether woods are supplied from FSC-certified forests. Also, it is helpful to check the sustainability report for tracking its’ environmental impact.
If you check the list above, you can make the right decision for yourself and the environment. And if the number of consumers like you increases, the furniture companies will think more about you and the environment. Your purchase is the beginning of the virtuous cycle.
Author: Yeon Gyong Lee
Reference
APA. (n.d.). List of Individual Standards: Apawood – Europe.
https://apawood-europe.org/official-guidelines/european-standards/individual-standards/
서창완. (2018. August 17). 한국은 ‘가구 포름알데히드’ 기준 후진국?
GreenpostKorea http://www.greenpostkorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=95130
황수분. (2020. February 16). 한샘, 유해물질 3단계 검증을 통한 ‘친환경 제품’ 기준 강화
Polinews https://www.polinews.co.kr/news/article.html?no=452871
연선옥. (2017. October 09) [Case study: 스위스 디자인 가구 회사 ‚비트라‘]세계적인 디자이너와 협업해 실용적인 가구 선보여EconomyChoson https://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/09/26/2017092601500.html
Vitra. (n.d) Certificates and standards.
https://www.vitra.com/en-fi/office/tools/certificates
IKEA. (n.d.). Holz – ein Material mit vielen Qualitäten.
https://www.ikea.com/ch/de/this-is-ikea/about-us/forestry-pubd4deffde
Federal Office for the Environment. (2018). Holzhandelsregulierung.
Federal Office for the Environment. (2018). Forest and wood.
https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/forest/in-brief.html
The author gives us insight into how we can choose the proper wood furniture. The core message is to provide readers to have basic knowledge about the different types of wood materials and to be able to recognise what is good, and not good, and choose the right wood, which is safe for us and the environment.
First, the author talked about the materials, and pros and cons of each wood. Next, the author also explained the usage of adhesive, the formaldehyde basic standard is different depends on the country. And finally, the author provides us with three steps of how we should choose the furniture. The author mentioned that even the company said it’s wood, that doesn’t mean this is purely solid wood. I didn’t know that how adhesive affects our health, and there are so many ways to assemble or produce wood materials, so it was very useful insights.
Overall, each paragraph is very informative, give another aspect of insight for wooden materials, step by step, and well structured so that easily could follow each part and be understandable.
However, for a layman, it’s hard to understand the difference purely on texts. Corroborate the different explanation with imagery contents (e.g. solid and manufactured wooden pattern) would improve the understanding. These visuals can help us recognize when we are choosing wooden furniture.
claimed by Kaho