SUSBIND discovers consumers willing to pay more for bio-based furniture products

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SUSBIND Industry-led White Paper on EU Furniture Ecolabel revision

Within the framework of the project, SUSBIND partners have developed an industry-led white paper on the EU’s Furniture Ecolabel revision. Criteria 049 of the EU Ecolabel addresses multiple aspects of furniture products beyond the scope of the SUSBIND project. Accordingly, the recommendations and statements in this white paper focus solely on the European market for wood-based panels and adhesive used in furniture production.

The research paper includes an extensive survey on the above-mentioned subject and addresses multiple stakeholders, from producers of wood, adhesives, and other materials, to producers of wood-based panels, furniture retailers and manufacturers. and last but not least, it provides valuable data to consumers. The survey was conducted by RTDS in close co-operation with the European Furniture Industries Confederation (EFIC), the European Federation for Furniture (FENA), the European Office Furniture Federation (FEMB) as well as with national organisations. It included 2,000 interviewees from the general public within four countries: Sweden, Spain, Poland and Germany, representing the geographical North, South, East and West respectively.

The white paper focuses on the following topics:

  • The relevance of the EU Ecolabel from both industry and consumer’s perspectives
  • The expectations from industry and consumers towards EU Ecolabel
  • The limitations or barriers to uptake of the EU Ecolabel in the furniture industry
  • The specific recommendations to contribute to a new EU ecolabelling strategy for the furniture industry, with emphasis on the following themes:
  • Hazardous substances and indoor air quality
  • Wood sourcing
  • Carbon footprint recyclability and waste management

SUSBIND survey results

One of the most interesting survey results is the fact that the consumers are willing to pay more for certified sustainable and healthy furniture products once they were made aware of their health and environmental benefits. Moreover, it is highly interesting that the responses before and after the survey differed in favour of “willing to pay even more” once they received more information on sustainable healthy products and after increasing their awareness of the benefits certified products offer.

Also, interestingly enough the interviewees had a relatively little knowledge of formaldehyde emissions related to furniture, and the majority showed great interest in EU Ecolabel providing more information about the certified products.

For more detailed survey results download the full presentation here: SUSBIND_Summary of B2C survey

The final version of the SUSBIND industry-led White Paper for the EU Ecolabel revision is now available here.