apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

amazing pieces... and sourced from local-ish sources which means the wood is not harvested in one country, shipped to another to be made, then shipped to a warehouse clear across the country only to land in your living room months later... while i have a lot of ikea-ish (to de la espada-ish) furniture, their true carbon-footprint has always bothered me a bit (especially DLE who harvests american woods, ships to portugal for manufacture, then ships back...).

Hm. I think the only convincing argument regarding the "carbon footprint" of "real" furniture like this as compared to Ikea is in the lifetime of the pieces. Clearly, a $1300 chair won't end up in a landfill as quickly as a $40 chair from Ikea. Otherwise, if there is so much less energy going into the manufacture of Semigood chair, why does it cost as much as 40 Ikea chairs? Assuming Ikea isn't subsidizing the energy cost for their chair, and they turn some kind of profit, I know that their $40 chair can't have used more than a couple of Gallons of oil equivalent to manufacture, store, transport. I would almost be willing to bet that more energy is spent making the $1300 chair (inefficiently) by hand, if one does a complete count. So, my guess is that longevity what clinches it.

i'm not following your logic other than the fact that you're pointing out that ikea's mass produced chair is cheaper -- which has far less to do with a carbon footprint issue than an personal economic one. if you think that a semigood chair is expensive because of the energy (electrical, fossil fuel, etc) used in its production, then you simply have a flawed premise. the retail cost of the piece and its footprint have nothing to do with one another.

but comparing apples for apples... take a chair from de la espada (mentioned above) perhaps their luna chair at $1350 (they do not make a solid wood dining chair anymore... all are part upholstery). the wood is harvested in america, shipped to portugal, shipped back to either NYC or london, then to your home... that's a lot of travel and wood isn't light (and assembled furniture isn't small).

and before we applaud ikea for flat-pack goodness, we might want to peer behind the curtains a bit.

again, from a personal POV, i've pieces of furniture from all over -- from a de la espada bed (which we love) to pieces found in my parents turn of the century basement... my point is that beyond FSC-certified lumber, there's more to being green... and semigood, methinks, is on the right path.