Designing Environmentally Sustainable Furniture Products: Furniture-Specific Life Cycle Design Guidelines and a Toolkit to Promote Environmental Performance

As awareness of the serious environmental impact of the furniture sector increases, design is increasingly recognized as a crucial lever for innovating towards sustainable furniture products. This acknowledgement was emphasized by the European Union in the Circular Economy Action Plan in 2020 and is further emphasized in the forthcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation in 2024. To address the environmental issues stemming from the life cycle of furniture products, which constitute the fundamental part of the furniture system, specific design knowledge and know-how are developed within this study. Although Life Cycle Design (LCD) is a systematic approach to reducing environmental impacts, its application within the furniture system remains limited. This paper adopts a design-based research approach with three research stages and employs various methods including a literature review, case study, workshops, interviews, questionnaires, and a focus group to develop furniture-specific LCD guidelines and a toolkit. As a result, this paper presents furniture-specific LCD guidelines (comprising 7 strategies, 21 sub-strategies, and 154 guidelines), 41 environmentally sustainable furniture case cards, and a toolkit (comprising 4 tools). These guidelines provide comprehensive principles for designers to address environmental impact throughout the furniture’s life cycle. The toolkit guides sustainable furniture LCD, promoting low environmental impact and high design efficiency. These outcomes address the existing gaps in knowledge and tools in this field.