There are many claims from furniture manufacturers and retailers about the furniture on display at their showroom or website-about durability, comfort, value, and even about environmental friendliness or “green” qualities.

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Some considerations to think about when shopping for eco-friendly furniture, discussed here, will help you qualify what the terms really mean and what things are important and which are “puffery”.

Furniture and furnishings are the third largest user of wood and wood products, after building and paper, and there is a high transport cost of wood. So, if imported (from Asia especially), wood products will have a high “carbon footprint” for furniture sold in the US. However, there are some choices that you can make as a consumer, and a big one is the source of the lumber used.

In wood furniture and in the wood frames of upholstered furniture-there are two certifying organizations that the manufacturer will …