Today almost everything is defined as "sustainable." Even when it is not.
In the furniture sector, this word has become an omnipresent label: it appears in advertising campaigns, packaging, and product descriptions, often without really explaining what it means.
Yet, when it comes to furniture, sustainability is not just a a nice story to tell. It is a concrete, measurable choice that produces real effects. The right question is not "is this piece of furniture sustainable?", but: what's behind this statement and how can I verify it?
This guide tries to answer these questions without beating around the bush.
"Sustainable" in furniture: what does it really mean?
Let's start with the basics. Sustainable furniture is a product that, throughout its entire life cycle, from production to use to disposal, generates the least possible impact on the environment.
"Lower impact" is a relative concept. It depends on what is being compared, which aspects are measured, and often the parameters of the measurements. For this reason, it is useful to know which areas to focus on when choosing furniture.
The materials. Where do they come from? Are they recycled, recyclable, or extracted and processed in a way that depletes natural resources?
For example, steel is infinitely recyclable without losing quality: it can be repainted, remelted, or disposed of and remelted to restart its life cycle.
Solid wood is restorable, recyclable, and relatively easy to recover at the end of its life, but it is not the only solution appreciated from a sustainability perspective.
Recycled wood can also be an interesting choice because it allows the recovery of already existing material instead of using exclusively new virgin raw material. Many panels are in fact made from a mixture of:
- post-consumer recycled wood
- virgin processing waste
- percentages of wood from FSC-certified forests
This solution helps reduce waste, limit the consumption of new resources, and move closer to a circular economy approach.
What matters is the entire cycle: raw material, processing, durability, and disposal.
The production process. How much energy does it consume? Is it renewable energy? How much waste does it generate? How is it treated? Where is it produced compared to where it is sold?
A factory in Italy selling to Italian customers has a very different logistical footprint compared to a product coming from the other side of the world.
The energy used during production is part of a product's environmental impact. For this reason, when a company uses renewable sources, such as photovoltaic systems, it contributes to reduce emissions related to the production process and dependence on fossil fuels.
In practice, two pieces of furniture identical in materials and design can have different environmental impacts depending on the energy used to produce them. If part of the production is powered by renewable energy, the overall environmental footprint of the product tends to decrease.
Durability and design. Sustainability is also measured over time. Some furniture is designed with frequent replacement in mind, while others focus on durability, repairability, and aesthetic continuity. This is also an important part of a product’s real environmental impact.
With the same materials and processes, furniture designed to accompany the home for years tends to have a lower impact.
Packaging and shipping. Details that seem marginal but count in the overall calculation.
Fast furniture: the problem you don’t see (until it’s too late)
Are you familiar with fast fashion, that system where clothes cost very little, are bought often, and thrown away even more often?
Fast furniture works exactly the same way. We hear it mentioned less only because, in everyday life, the need to buy new clothes is more frequent than buying new furniture.
What does fast furniture mean?
The fast furniture mechanism is this: large manufacturers produce huge volumes of furniture at very low cost, often using synthetic materials and production processes that prioritize speed over durability. Prices are low, aesthetics are appealing, and the implicit message is "if it breaks, you just buy another one".
The result? According to a report from the European Environmental Bureau, every year in the European Union about 10 million tons of furniture are discarded, most destined for landfill or incineration.
A large part of this volume consists of furniture that does not stand the test of time, cannot be repaired, and ends up directly in landfills, often non-recyclable because made from glued or pressed mixed materials.
It is not just an environmental problem. It is also an economic problem, which falls on the consumer: you end up buying twice what should have been bought once, with the hidden cost of disposal and the inconvenience of replacement.
There is a third dimension, the less visible one: labor. To keep those prices low, fast furniture has to cut costs somewhere.
Materials are cheap, production processes are optimized to the lowest cost, but often the most compressed cost is labor, through very long and opaque supply chains in countries where labor condition controls are minimal or difficult to verify.
It is not always the case, but it happens often enough to be a recognizable pattern. A new piece of furniture that costs twenty euros cannot have been made well and cannot have been made under decent conditions. The numbers just don’t add up any other way.
Choosing differently does not necessarily mean spending much more. It means spending better, once, on something that lasts.
Signs to watch out for that indicate furniture is not sustainable
Extremely low prices, unclear materials, lack of information about the supply chain, inability to find spare parts or technical details: these are all signs that may indicate production not oriented towards durability and real sustainability.
How is Italy doing with sustainable furniture?
The Italian production system, made up of medium and small-sized companies, often family-run and rooted in their local territory, is structurally different from that of large global producers.
Producing in Italy means respecting some of the strictest environmental standards in Europe: regulations on emissions, industrial waste management, the use of chemicals in paints and treatments. Standards that in other producing countries sometimes do not exist, and in others are not applied with the same strictness.
It also means reducing emissions related to transport: a piece of furniture produced in Verona and shipped to Milan travels a few hundred kilometers. The same furniture produced in Asia can travel thousands of kilometers by ship before arriving in our homes. International maritime transport still largely uses fossil fuels that have a significant environmental impact.
So is made in Italy always sustainable?
We can say that made in Italy it is a good starting point, but not all made in Italy companies have the same level of attention towards sustainability. Moreover, sustainability also depends on materials, processes, and durability.
Is steel a sustainable material?
Steel is the quintessential industrial material, far from the image of natural wood or bamboo that we often spontaneously associate with sustainability.
Yet, from a life cycle, it is one of the most virtuous materials that exist.
Steel is 100% recyclable, indefinitely, without loss of quality. It does not degrade in the remelting process, it does not lose mechanical properties.
This means that a piece of steel worked on today can become another product in twenty years and then yet another.
The steel recycling rate in Europe exceeds 80%: one of the highest among all construction and furniture materials.
What is on demand production and why it changes everything
One of the biggest wastes in the furniture sector is hidden in a place consumers never see: the warehouse.
The traditional model works like this: production is done in advance, in large quantities, to reduce unit costs. The product is stored, then distributed, then maybe remains unsold, is discounted, ends up in outlets, or is destroyed. It is the model that supports fast furniture and generates the mountain of waste we talked about.
Production on demand It works the other way around: only what is actually ordered is produced, without accumulating too much extra stock.
The products made already have a specific destination.
The result is advantageous for the company, the environment, and you, who receive that piece of furniture at home. Less material waste, less energy consumed to produce unsold items, less waste, and more production attention.
It is a more complex model to manage: it requires flexible production processes and slightly longer waiting times for the customer, compared to buying something already in stock.
However, it is undoubtedly more respectful of resources.
We at Hiro have chosen to take this path from the very beginning.
Here we tell you more of the on demand production.
Sustainable furniture: how to really recognize it? The checklist
How to understand if a piece of furniture is sustainable? Here are the concrete points to focus on when evaluating furniture. We have already touched on some, but they deserve further exploration.
Where is it produced?
The distance between production and use affects transport emissionsEuropean production (and Italian, in particular) means higher environmental standards and a shorter supply chain.
With which materials?
Carefully researching the materials that make up your furniture is a great way to learn more about sustainability and durability.
Steel (recyclable), wood from certified supply chains, recycled materials: these are good indicators.
Mixed non-recyclable plastics, foams, mixed materials difficult to separate: they immediately tell you that your furniture, in a few decades or sooner, will hardly have a second life.
Does the company produce on order or from stock?
Companies that produce on demand or with minimal stock They promote a more responsible supply chain.
If you order online and want to know if the manufacturer of your furniture, always take a look at the pages on the site dedicated to production or sustainability.
Producing to order requires a different production organization compared to models based on large warehouse stocks. It is a choice that helps reduce overproduction and unsold inventory.
Shipping times might be longer if your furniture does not yet exist: that wait includes the time needed to produce it, pack it, and ship it to your home, but this often translates into greater production care and higher final product quality.
Is the packaging recyclable? Are shipments optimized?
When talking about sustainable packaging, the “green” aspect of the material used is not the only thing that matters.
A truly well-designed packaging should reduce waste, use recyclable or recycled materials, limit unnecessary plastic, and optimize volumes during transport.
Also logistics plays an important role: efficient shipping, short supply chains, and local production help reduce overall environmental impact.
An often underestimated aspect? The durability of packaging.
Packaging that is too fragile or poorly designed risks causing damage during transport, resulting in returns, replacements, and additional shipments. Every extra trip means more emissions, more materials used, and more resource waste. For this reason, sustainable packaging must not only consider materials: it must also be protective, functional, and designed to preserve the product during transit.
Finding a balance between reducing environmental impact and packaging strength is not easy, and this is precisely one of the most complex (and often most appreciated) aspects in designing a truly sustainable packaging and shipping system.
How is the surface treated?
The surface finish of a piece of furniture is not only aesthetic, it is also chemical. The chemistry, in this case, also concerns the air you breathe at home.
Traditional solvent-based paints release VOCs (volatile organic compounds) both during production and in the weeks following purchase. Some of these compounds are classified as irritants, others as potentially toxic with prolonged exposure. It is a variable worth being aware of.
The powder coatings do not contain solvents, do not release a significant amount of VOCs, and produce very little waste in the industrial process. They are also more resistant to wear and scratches compared to many liquid paints, which is useful when we talk about furniture durability.
This is also documented by The Color Magazine in his technical insight on the production of Hiro: an automatic powder coating plant with rapid color change, which optimizes time and reduces process waste.
Asking the manufacturer what type of finish they use is not a strange question.
How long does it last? The criterion that changes all calculations
Durability is the most underestimated criterion when buying furniture and probably the one that impacts the most, both environmentally and financially.
There is a very concrete way to think about this: the cost over time. A quality piece of furniture, designed to last and remain current over the years, proves more cost-effective compared to products that require more frequent replacements, with all that entails in terms of new purchases, transport, and disposal.
Design can also be sustainable
When talking about sustainability, people immediately think of materials or production.
Yet design also has a huge impact. An object designed following very fleeting trends risks becoming tiresome quickly, even if it is still perfectly functional.
It is the principle of fast aesthetics: products designed to look “new” today but already outdated tomorrow.
An essential, balanced design less tied to trends tends instead to last longer over time, not only structurally but also in the perception of those who live with it every day.
Times change quickly, and so do people's specific needs: that’s why Listening to the practical needs of the community is fundamental: an attention not all companies have.
When a piece of furniture continues to be liked and functional after ten years, it is much more likely to stay in your home instead of being replaced. This, after all, is sustainability too.
We at Hiro: where we are today in our sustainability journey
We wrote this guide because it is a topic that directly concerns us.
We at Hiro produce painted steel furniture in Badia Calavena, Veneto, and sustainability is one of the issues closest to our hearts.
Here is where we are now.
The materials. We mainly work with steel, which is infinitely recyclable.
For furniture that also includes wood, such as Lisandra, Littera or the nightstands Lirio and Delfi, we choose composite panels from a wood blend recycled at least 90%. The remaining 10% comes from virgin processing scraps or from FSC certified sustainable forests.
Production. We produce almost entirely to order, with minimal stock. This means that every piece leaving our facility already has a destination. It ensures that we do not produce to fill warehouses but to guarantee the highest quality workmanship for each product, limiting waste and leftovers.
DesignProducing responsibly for us also means directly involving the community.
We collect requests sent by email, carefully listen to customer feedback and requests to offer increasingly functional, aesthetically long-lasting, and efficient products, and we delegate the community to choose the new items to put into production.
Through Call for Ideas At Hiro, we periodically collect new projects from talented designers linked to ever-changing themes: the winning one is chosen by the community itself through social media, newsletters, and live events.
Energy. To reduce the impact of the production process, we use technologies that help limit waste and energy consumption.
We have installed photovoltaic panels on the workshop roofs that help cover part of the energy needed for production.
Packaging. For packaging, we prioritize recycled and recyclable materials, especially paper and cardboard, aiming to minimize plastic use without compromising product protection during transport.
Shipments. We gather as many items as possible in asingle shipment. The couriers we choose have verifiable sustainability commitments: GLS with the Climate Protect program, BRT with goals validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative.
Manuele Perlati, our founder, identified sustainability, colors, and shapes as the three key words for furniture design in 2026, in aninterview with Fanpage.it during Milan Design Week. It’s the direction we’re looking toward, aware that just looking isn’t enough.
Here you’ll find all the details about our sustainability philosophy.
The choice that really matters
Choosing sustainable furniture doesn’t mean giving up design, color, or aesthetic quality. It means asking more precise questions than “how much does it cost?”.
It involves questions like: “How long will it last? Do I know where it was made? Do I know what it’s made of?”
Every furniture purchase is, in a small way, a vote about the type of production system you want to support. Buying from those who produce carefully, in Italy, made to order, with durable and recyclable materials, is a concrete contribution to a market that looks to the common good, to conscious production and supply chains.
Every purchase sends a clear signal to the market: it tells companies that investing in quality, more responsible processes, and production aimed at durability truly matters.
At the same time, reduces the demand for models based on overproduction, short lifespan, and rapid consumptionIn many cases, it also means supporting local supply chains, artisanal skills, and more controllable and transparent production.
Sustainability in design also concerns how long an object will remain in your home without needing to be replaced. That’s why choosing durable furniture can have a more tangible impact than it seems.
