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sustainabletimes
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Abuse, reuse, recycle
The Furniture Industry Research
Association (FIRA) is aiming to
reduce its own carbon footprint
in partnership with Recycling
Furniture Ltd.
As a leading authority on furniture
and flammability testing, FIRA faces
unique waste disposal problems, as the
nature of its business means that much
of the furniture that passes through its
doors can’t be re-used or re-sold.
“At the FIRA testing centre we
test thousands of furniture products
to life expectancy and in some cases
destruction, testing them in terms of
strength, safety, stability, durability
and flammability. This makes them
dangerous for future use, meaning
in the past FIRA had no choice but
to dispose of them if they were not
collected by the manufacturer,”
explained Paul Soley, Operations
Manager for FIRA Testing Services.
He added: “Sending furniture to
landfill creates a huge problem for
everyone involved. Not only does this
harm the environment, but it’s also a
massive waste of natural resources.”
Last summer, in an attempt to
reduce the impact of its activities,
FIRA started working with Recycling
Furniture, which recycles 98% of any
item of furniture that they collect.
So far, it has collected and recycled
more than 400 pieces weighing a
total of 16,218kg.
www.recyclingfurniture.co.uk
RWE npower has converted the Tilbury B power station in
Essex to run on biomass. Before a fire shut down two of the
three generating units on February 27, the converted plant was
expected to provide enough power for 1.5 million homes and
generate 10% of the UK’s total renewable energy output in
2012. The use of wood pellets, at least 90% of which will be
sourced from North America, is expected to produce 70% fewer
greenhouse gas emissions than coal, as well as fewer SO
2
, NOX
and dust emissions. Even so, critics have expressed concerns
about the environmental impact of burning virgin wood and
the impact of biomass subsidies on the competitiveness of
the UK furniture industry. RWE npower is hoping to renew full
operations in the summer.
greenAgenda
The Furniture Industry Research
Association (FIRA) has failed in
its attempt to find a consistent,
affordable methodology for
calculating the carbon footprint of
furniture products after deciding
that the cradle-to-gate approach it
favoured was potentially misleading.
FIRA set up its Product Carbon
Footprint Benchmarking Project to see
if there was an easy way to measure
the carbon footprint of furniture
products that could be used across
the industry in a way that would
allow specifiers to compare the eco-
credentials of different products.
Currently, manufacturers use a
range of methodologies to calculate
product carbon footprints, making
comparisons difficult.
For its study, FIRA used established
Furniture Footprinter software and
limited carbon footprint measurements
to the point of despatch, known as a
‘cradle to gate’ approach.
This approach has the virtues of
affordability, simplicity and practicality,
but FIRA found that failure to take into
account lifecycle considerations, such
as a product’s durability or its ability
to be re-cycled or re-used, meant
that assessments were potentially
misleading.
For the time being, it is advising
companies to use a ‘cradle to grave’
approach, with the caveat that because
it looks at much wider factors, the cost
and complexity of producing footprints
will be greater.
One positive outcome of FIRA’s
analysis of 26 manufacturers of
domestic, contract and office furniture
products is the observation that in
most cases the greatest contributors
to a product’s carbon footprint are
the materials used and manufacturing
processes, rather than other factors
such as utilities or transportation.
From this, FIRA concludes that the
best way to shrink a product’s footprint
is to focus on reducing materials usage
or to switch to low carbon alternatives.
01438 777 700 www.fira.co.uk
UK furniture industry calls for
changes to biomass subsidies
The British Furniture Confederation (BFC) and FIRA are
calling on supporters of the UK furniture industry to sign a
petition calling for changes to the Renewables Obligation
Woody Biomass Subsidy.
They argue that subsidies introduced in 2002 to encourage
power companies to burn renewable fuel, including wood, are
distorting the market for new timber and forcing up prices for
furniture manufacturers.
According to the FIRA report,
Biomass Subsidies and
their Impact on the British Furniture Industry
, in the last five
years wood prices have risen by 55.1%. The additional cost
has reduced margins for manufacturers, increased prices for
consumers and damaged the competitiveness of British-made
products in the UK and overseas.
In the report, FIRA and the BFC call on the Government to
set a binding limit of 10% on the amount of biomass large
energy generators can source domestically; to undertake a
thorough review of the economic impact of the wood biomass
subsidy; and to impose a planning moratorium on dedicated
woody biomass energy plants while conducting the review.
The report also questions the environmental justification
for the subsidy, claiming that burning woody biomass
creates significantly more CO
2
emissions than wood panel
manufacturing and that biomass stations that rely on wood
imports from abroad are a threat to the world’s forests and
may even increase climate-change emissions.
Another problem is the burning of virgin timber. Because
the most sustainable life-cycle for wood is to go from planting
to manufacturing, to recycling and then incineration at end of
life, FIRA and the BFC are calling for virgin fibre to be excluded
from subsidies and for greater effort to be made to divert wood
products from landfill to energy generation.
Supporters of the British furniture industry can add their
names to FIRA and BFC’s campaign by signing a petition at
www.biomass-petition.org
FIRA fails in quest for comparable
carbon footprints