As the voice of furniture manufacturers, retailers and suppliers across the UK, British Furniture Manufacturers (BFM) is taking clear steps to support the industry-wide shift towards sustainable working practices, writes Phil Spademan, BFM MD.
As demand for ‘sustainability’ increases, it’s important to understand what the term actually means. In my view, it essentially means creating a type of stability within a system that allows it to thrive.
In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined it as: ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
In business terms, this comes neatly under the recognised ‘three pillars’ of sustainability:
Environmental – protecting the environment in which we live and work, providing ongoing supply of natural resources
Social – ensuring societal structures are robust, enabling healthy, educated people gain the skills needed to work and thrive in peaceful communities
Economic – providing a system in which businesses and other organisations can grow, provide more jobs and improve economic outcomes.
All our member businesses use natural resources, require certain skills and are impacted by the wider economic climate, so creating sustainable, stable systems across these three pillars actually makes a lot of sense for every business, from the sole trader in a backyard workshop to major international manufacturers.
We know from our work with members and partners that sustainability is a factor that can influence the awarding of a contract, a partnership agreement or even a simple sale.
And this is why our Future of Furniture Awards – launched in 2023 – bring the efforts of BFM members who place sustainability at the heart of their business model into the spotlight.
This year the awards expanded from two to four categories, with the Excellence in Education and Excellence in Sustainability titles joined by new accolades for Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting and Sustainability Champion.
Award entries were evaluated by a panel of judges, who considered a number of criteria, including evidence of a commitment to continuous improvement in sustainability and a willingness to lead and empower others.
Harrison Spinks received a double award, with the company receiving the Excellence in Sustainability award, while their Group Sustainability Manager, Emma Linney-Taylor was named Sustainability Champion.
The company’s drive to source raw materials more responsibly, reduce environmental impact and conserve resources while improving product performance led to a number of supply innovations including the use of natural fillings grown at the company’s farms near Tadcaster, reducing chemical use by weaving mattress fabrics in-house, introducing digitalisation to reduce energy consumption and shifting from offshore carbon offsetting to environmental restoration.
Excellence in Education winner, Ercol, was recognised for a successful reinstatement of its apprenticeship programme in 2017, alongside outreach work in schools and colleges as well as providing work experience and factory tours for students.
Vita Group was awarded the Excellence in ESG Reporting accolade after giving a detailed account of a three-year journey working with partners to establish a workplace culture that aligns with its goals and advances its sustainability mission.
This example of partnership working echoes the partnership agreement between BFM and ethical auditor Verisio, which seeks to set an industry standard for auditing.
Verisio’s Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) is a comprehensive social compliance audit based on International Labor Organization (ILO) standards and the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) base code.
By helping companies identify improvements and ensuring that manufacturers can demonstrate ethical practices across their supply chain, the audit aims to create a standard that is informed by both manufacturers and retailers.
We are working towards setting an industry standard to allow our members to undergo just one test, rather than doing several audits, repeating things, and spending far more money than they actually need to.
The Verisio team work with a number of BFM members and are experienced in furniture factory audits in the UK and globally.
It’s an excellent way of health-checking a business and adds value by having independent verification that the systems in place are robust.
BFM members can work with Verisio at a discounted rate, thanks to the partnership agreement, and I discuss the benefits of the SMETA audit with Verisio’s Leon Reed and Director at One-Call Furniture, Paul James, in a recent episode of our Industry Matters podcast: Podcasts – British Furniture Manufacturers (bfm.org.uk).
Alongside our Future of Furniture Awards and partnership with Verisio, BFM works with a number of organisations to provide members with the support and information they need to operate more sustainably.
The Furniture Industry Sustainability Program, launched in 2006, is the benchmark for sustainable practices in the UK furniture industry and considers all aspects of social, ethical and employment issues as well as waste, energy and emissions, from purchasing and procurement to end of product life.
We have also partnered with Planet Mark, a sustainability certification and net zero provider for organisations and the built environment.
For over a decade, Planet Mark has supported organisations to radically reduce carbon emissions, create operational efficiencies, enhance profits and work towards the global transition to net zero.
Our partnership means we offer webinars and workshops to members so that they feel confident to take measurable steps to reduce their carbon footprint. In addition, there are many toolkits and resources available to download from the Planet Mark website.
BFM is committed to increasing awareness of the elements that make British-made furniture great in the eyes of consumers, retailers, contract specifiers, architects and the wider international audience – and sustainability is one of the key factors that will drive the future of furniture.
