1kg CO2e – materials

What impact does our furniture have on the climate? 1kg CO2e is an exhibition shown at the Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023. On display are 40+ materials – both traditional materials, and new climate innovative ones. As part of the exhibition, several panel discussions are being held, and the installation will serve as a venue for meaningful conversations and networking. We hope to see you there. Different materials are shown together with their climate impact. By measuring carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) – the metric that is used to understand the climate impact of products – we can clearly see that our choice of materials is important. A single chair can cause everything from a few kilograms of CO2e, to several hundred.

For furniture, the material choices we make as an industry typically accounts for around 50% of the carbon footprint. Material choices do matter. This is why we have dedicated this exhibit to materials and the invisible differences between them. In the exhibit you can see how much of different materials you get for 1 kg of CO2e. What materials do you choose for the future?

To achieve climate safety, by 2030, each person on the planet should emit no more than approximately 2,5 tonnes of CO2e per year. Today, Swedes on average, emit around 9 tonnes per year. This means that we now have 7 years to cut emissions by around 70%. If we assume that the climate footprint of furniture has to follow the same reduction curve – then we have precious little time to change how we produce and nurture furniture to give people access to seating, comfort, relaxation, beauty and all of the other things that furniture does.