Best Sustainable Home Office Furniture

See what to look out for when choosing the best furniture for your home office

With more hybrid working becoming the normal working practice for many thousands of people, it is unsurprising that sales of home office equipment have increased. Gone are the days of the makeshift desk on the corner of the kitchen table or resting the laptop and juggling your papers on your lap on the sofa.

Home offices and workstations are now becoming permanent fixtures in the home. After the uncertainty of the pandemic people are now investing in specific furniture for their home office rather than just making do with what they already have.

But what is the best sustainable home office furniture?

The best sustainable home office furniture should utilise environmentally friendly materials like wood or contain sustainable and recycled materials. Before purchasing new furniture check to see what certification they carry, look for products with C2C or FSC certification. These are good indicators of how the companies’ eco-friendly policies and credentials stack up.

With utilitarian desks and chairs for office working now making way for more contemporary items of furniture, sustainable environmentally friendly designs not only blend in with your current décor but are ergonomically designed as well as being fit for purpose.

Read on to see what to look out for when buying sustainable office furniture and explore items that may be on your shopping list for your home office.

Buyers guide: Home office furniture

C2C Certification

When looking to purchase any environmentally sustainable office furniture, a good tip is to look for products that carry the C2C Certification. This is a globally recognised certification, grading companies on their goods for safer, sustainable products, encouraging companies to be more eco-friendly. Companies’ products are assessed on five main criteria including:

Material Health,
Product Circularity,
Clean Air and Climate Protection,
Water & Soil stewardship,
Social fairness.

Company Credentials

More and more companies are embracing an environmentally-friendly ethos. Companies like Kudu Studio, manufacture and produce a range of eco-friendly sustainable home office furniture.

Not only are they utilising FSC certified and recyclable Baltic birch plywood but they also ensure their designs are created to last a lifetime to reduce waste and incorporate design features such as fully replaceable parts.

When looking to purchase new sustainable home office furniture, it’s always worth looking to see the companies’ credentials and see how they stack up. Eco-friendly companies are happy to shout about their environmentally friendly methods and carbon-reducing processes.

Sustainable Materials

Whether you are purchasing chairs, desks, or office accessories it is worth taking a bit of time to look at what the product is made of and opting for items that are made from recycled or sustainable materials.

If it’s made of wood, is it made from sustainable timber from FSC managed forests?

Choose products made from sustainable materials like Bamboo as this is a highly sustainable crop and makes for a very eco-friendly material to use for accessories and desktops.

If your furniture or accessories are made from plastic, how much of its content is recycled? More companies are designing products that utilise waste, taking everyday rubbish like milk cartons and yoghurt pots and turning it into sleek contemporary office furniture made from recycled materials.

The last point to consider before committing to your new purchase, is thinking about its end of life as well as its daily use – Can it be recycled? How easy will the piece of furniture be to dispose of at the end of its usable life?

Buying quality items often means paying a little more in the short term. But in the long term, the furniture is more likely to last making it much more sustainable.

Related articles:

Best home office furniture products

Chairs

On the top of the shopping list and one of the essential items needed for your sustainable home office, is your chair. Most home office workers are thought to spend an average of six and a half hours in front of the computer, which means the chair needs to be ergonomically designed to provide comfort and support.

There are several companies that are manufacturing eco-friendly office chairs, that not only look stylish and would blend in with most home décor but also provide the support required.

Chairs like the HÅG Capisco 8106 Straw Office Chair from Posturite is made from recycled car bumpers plastic packaging and household waste. Its striking design would look great in any home office.

It has been designed to encourage active sitting, promoting natural movement, whilst offering versatility and adjustability. By utilising waste products, this is a very sustainable desk chair.

Or if you are after something not quite so budget heavy and with a more executive look how about the Eco-friendly leather office chair with reclining, swivel, and full-tilt functions?

This sustainable home office chair comes in two designs and utilises eco-friendly leatherette material.

Eco-Friendly Leather Office Chair

Best Sustainable Home Office Furniture - office chair

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5. Desks

Now we are sitting comfortably, the next item of sustainable home office furniture to consider is the desk.

With a little more variety when it comes to sustainable home office desks and workstations, eco-friendly desks come in a variety of heights, widths, and materials.

Give some consideration to how you will use your desk, do you require space for additional files, pot plants, calendars and notebooks or are you a minimalist worker and just need space for a laptop, keyboard, and mouse?

Do you want to have the facility of shelves for having objects on display or drawers to keep everything tidy?

What kind of style will fit well within your home décor? If you favour the rustic or vintage style, how about repurposing a vintage second-hand desk, look on Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace to find one for sale in your area.

This gives an old piece of furniture a new lease of life and can save a quality piece from a landfill. With the bonus of reducing the carbon footprint than if you were to purchase new.

If you favour the classic style but can’t find what you like second-hand, new eco-friendly computer desk options include:

Baumhaus La Roque Single Pedestal Computer Desk

Best Sustainable Home Office Furniture - home office desk

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Or if you favour a more contemporary look with sleek lines – utilising wooden legs and a recycled glass top check out this product.

Cherry Tree Furniture Exton 1-Drawer Glass Desk

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The options for sustainable office desks are vast. Opt for sustainable materials of glass, recycled plastic and FSC wood or Bamboo. Several sustainable workstations are manufactured from MDF and plywood, which are both sustainable and eco-friendly as these materials utilise the waste shavings and wood fibre from other pieces of wood that are otherwise discarded and sent to landfills.

For those who prefer to stand or want to have the option of sitting and standing at their desk, check out the article on eco-friendly standing desks.

6. Storage

If you need access to a few files or books or have items you want to display, a bookcase or shelving unit can be a great addition to any home office.

Budget-friendly options made from 100% recyclable and FSC certified cardboard such as banker’s box file storage can be a good choice. With the option of being stackable, they can keep files safely and stored neatly without taking up too much space on your desk.

Bankers Box System

Best Sustainable Home Office Furniture - storage

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Alternatively, if you favour something a little more robust, a good storage solution is a set of 3 drawers, lockable and on castors to allow easy movement around the office:

Office Hippo Heavy Duty 3 Drawer Mobile Pedestal

Best Sustainable Home Office Furniture - home office storage

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This unit is made from FSC certified forests providing useful sustainable office furniture, allowing space for all those items to be stored away neatly

Whether you need space to store a printer or other stationary peripherals, there is a good selection of versatile storage options that are environmentally friendly to suit most budgets.

7. Accessories

When setting up your sustainable home office, one item that is easy to overlook is the little accessories, the pens and pen pots, desk organisers and cable management boxes.

Luckily these can all be sourced from sustainable and recycled materials to aid your efficiency and help with storage in your new home office. I have included a selection of great little items to make your home office complete:

Eco-Friendly Pens with Low-Waste Packaging (Pack of 24)