A comprehensive online carbon footprinting tool developed specifically for the furniture industry has been launched at an event in central London.
Developed by FIRA in partnership with leading environmental consultants Best Foot Forward, the Furniture FootprinterTM is a revolutionary analysis and accounting tool developed to help companies within the furniture supply chain reduce their carbon footprints.
The easy to use, cost effective, secure, web-based tool is compatible with existing and emerging national and international standards. It is accessible to multiple users within an organisation and is supported by accurate, comprehensive data, which are retained on secure servers to allow ongoing analysis.
Main features of Furniture FootprinterTM:
Calculates the carbon and ecological footprints of products, processes, projects and companies
Compares the impacts of different product or project options
Identifies areas where significant improvements can be made
Creates easy to understand reports and charts
Helps to raise employee awareness
Demonstrates continuous improvement
Stores your data and is continuously updated to reflect the latest footprint figures
Speaking at the launch at the Royal Society for Arts, Best Foot Forward Managing Director Nicky Chambers said: “We live in a resource constrained world. Globally we are using 25% more resources than the Earth can sustainably provide, and this is predicted to rise to 100% more by 2050, so we need to realign our thought processes to address this sustainability gap”.
One driver for such change, she added, was increasing pressure in the area of procurement. “More and more specifiers are insisting on low carbon options and environmental management,” she said.
“But don’t be a victim of analysis paralysis – worrying about what to do and where to start, then doing nothing – just make change happen!”
Nick Hill, Technical and Sourcing Manager at Marks & Spencer, gave an overview of the company’s environmental initiative Plan A, which aims to make M&S carbon neutral by 2012. It has created two eco-factories since Plan A began a year ago, one a new, purpose built facility for clothing in Sri Lanka, and the other a 20-year-old upholstery manufacturing plant in North Wales, which required modifications.
“The plant in Wales was built before climate change was even thought of,” he said. “It had high energy use in terms of lighting, heating and machinery, so we introduced a series of measures to address these issues. An environmental audit found that lighting actually had the biggest single impact, so now it is controlled by motion sensors to avoid unnecessary use. Water use has been cut by installing percussion taps, and combined heating and power is to be introduced in June. Such measures will mean by the middle of this year we will have cut CO2 emissions by 40%.
Looking ahead we’ll also be working to ensure we send no waste to landfill from the factory,” Nick said.
During a lively question and answer session, he added that the introduction of carbon saving measures had associated cost savings, which enhanced the benefit of taking such action.
Dr Pete Beele, FIRA’s Head of Technical Development, demonstrated the Furniture FootprinterTM to a capacity audience, and small groups were able to test it for themselves in workshop sessions. Far more sophisticated than a simple carbon calculator, the next generation carbon accounting tool is geared towards the issues facing the furniture sector, and calculates the footprints of specific products, projects, processes and whole organisations.
Hayden Davies, FIRA Managing Director, said: “A year ago we decided that carbon footprinting was going to be a key issue for our industry in the future, and that FIRA would be expected to provide expert information about the issues and how they might affect the industry. It became clear to us that our industry needs to adopt a standard approach that all parties agree on if companies’ individual environmental initiatives are to have credibility with customers. The Furniture FootprinterTM provides that consistency”.
A comprehensive online carbon footprinting tool developed specifically for the furniture industry has been launched at an event in central London.
Main features of Furniture FootprinterTM:
Nick Hill, Technical and Sourcing Manager at Marks & Spencer, gave an overview of the company’s environmental initiative Plan A, which aims to make M&S carbon neutral by 2012. It has created two eco-factories since Plan A began a year ago, one a new, purpose built facility for clothing in Sri Lanka, and the other a 20-year-old upholstery manufacturing plant in North Wales, which required modifications.
Dr Pete Beele, FIRA’s Head of Technical Development, demonstrated the Furniture FootprinterTM to a capacity audience, and small groups were able to test it for themselves in workshop sessions. Far more sophisticated than a simple carbon calculator, the next generation carbon accounting tool is geared towards the issues facing the furniture sector, and calculates the footprints of specific products, projects, processes and whole organisations. 
For further details on the tool, please visit