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Zhu & Niu (2022). “Green materials for furniture,” BioResources 17(2), 2228-2242. 2228
Green Material Characteristics Applied to Office Desk
Furniture
Jiangang Zhu * and Jiayu Niu
The rational application of green materials is a necessary step for the
development of environment-friendly industries and a circular economy.
However, the popularity and practicality of the sustainable development of
office furniture companies in China still lags far behind the world’s leading
companies. To gain a deeper understanding of the application of green
materials in the Chinese office furniture industry, a questionnaire survey
for enterprises in response to relevant issues was conducted based on an
extensive review of the relevant literature. The research comprehensively
analyzed the application status of green materials in Chinese and
overseas office furniture companies, and the environment-friendly
materials selection strategy of the main materials, and packaging
materials for office desk furniture was proposed according to the current
situation. The results showed that China has vigorously begun guiding and
supporting the green development of furniture manufacturing enterprises,
but there is imperative need of a range of upgrades in the enacting or
revising of laws and regulations pertaining to green manufacturing and
manufacturing technology. Furniture enterprises should seize the
opportunity to promote the application of clean energy and improve the
recycling mechanism of waste furniture with an aim to maximize the
benefits of sustainable development.
DOI: 10.15376/biores.17.2.2228-2242
Keywords: Green material; Office desk design; Office furniture; Packaging materials
Contact information: College of Furnishings and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing,
210037, China; *Corresponding author: austin_zhu@njfu.edu.cn
INTRODUCTION
Faced with the deteriorating ecological environment, national and international
authorities have been continuously promulgating environmental strategies. China has
established that green and low-carbon development is necessary for enterprise
development, which is related to the quality of high-quality economic development, the
nature of ecological environment conservation, and the most inclusive people’s livelihood
(Tang 2019). The development of the green furniture industry has become an inevitable
trend, and green furniture manufacturing has become an important direction for the future
reform of China’s furniture industry (Xiong et al. 2017). However, in terms of the current
operating conditions of China’s office furniture companies, the penetration of the concept
of sustainable development is not comprehensive enough, and there is a lack of a complete
green manufacturing technology system for the furniture industry (Xiong et al. 2020). As
the material basis of the system, green materials are a key step to achieve sustainable
development. This paper starts from the perspective of green materials and discusses its
application path for office desk furniture. The aim is to provide ideas for the improvement
of the green manufacturing technology system of the furniture industry.
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Zhu & Niu (2022). “Green materials for furniture,” BioResources 17(2), 2228-2242. 2229
The concept of green material was first introduced at the first International
Conference on Materials in 1988. Green material was designated as an environmental-
friendly material with basic performance characteristics that will not have a negative
impact on the environment after it has been manufactured, utilized, and discarded (Wang
et al. 2019; Xiao 2021). In the category of furniture, green materials can generally be
divided into four categories: natural materials, recycled materials, low environmental load
materials, and environmentally functional materials (Zhu and Wu 2013). With the passage
of time and technological progress, the materials that are used in desks have gradually
expanded from a single natural material. Many materials can be used in desks, such as
wood, metal, plastic, and leather. This is because the need for desk function gradually
increases, causing more materials to be needed to support the function. Such functions of
an office desk may include a lifting system for adjusting office posture, a screen for
protecting privacy, and the cable management of the desk for organizing the desktop
computer (Fig.1). But it is undeniable that wood is still the main material of desk furniture,
and the environmental research on wood materials is still the focus of the future (Wu 2021).
Fig. 1. Various office desk usage pattern: a) height adjustable office desk, b) fabric screen of the
desk, and c) cable management of the desk. (Picture source: https://www.lamex.com/zh-
hans/product/duplex)
In recent years, most Chinese office furniture companies have begun to pay
attention to the application of green materials, especially among high-end brands such as
Aurora Furniture, Sunon, and Onlead. Green materials that are used in the whole line of
products can basically contain minimum or no harmful chemical components, and the
utilization rate of degradable materials is high. Medium and low-end brands may be limited
by capital, do not have a complete furniture processing and production chain, and cannot
strictly control the product supply chain. The materials that are used in medium and low-
end brands are not highly degradable and the degree of environmental performance is
relatively low. Overall, there is still a big gap between Chinese and overseas leading office
furniture enterprises in aspects of the popularity and practical operation of the green
concept.
The penetration and implementation of the concept of sustainable development for
world leading office furniture enterprises are generally high in companies such as Herman
Miller, Steel Case, and Haworth. The materials used in these products have basically
passed the authoritative certification such as GREENGUARD and ISO 14001. In addition
to the material itself, the processing equipment, the energy supply, the product service life,
and the product recycling have been systematically planned. This also benefits from the
guidance of national policies. The furniture industry in the world’s mainstream countries
has high standards for the selection of environmental-friendly materials. One of the main
reasons is the early and high degree of implementation of relevant regulations regarding
a
b
c
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green development (Huang et al. 2017). In the late 1960’s, the book “Design for the Real
World” by American design theorist Victor Babanak put forward the concept of green
development and promoted the transformation of the concept of industry development
(Leng and Teng 2013). A series of environmental rules and regulations, such as the basic
law on countermeasures against public hazards implemented in Japan in the 1970’s, are
already preparing for green development (Liu and Sun 2016). In 2009, the United States
and the United Kingdom repeatedly stressed that the development of a green economy
should be a priority (Li and Li 2011). Therefore, with the investment and support of the
government, the transformation speed of enterprises has greatly improved.
Literature Review
The focus here is on environmental-friendly desk furniture in design and
manufacturing, normal use, and waste recycling. The aim is to improve the greening of
desk materials in line with the scope of enterprise development benefits. In fact, back in
2013, relevant studies showed that most consumers were willing to buy goods produced by
materials and technologies with a low negative impact on the natural environment and are
willing to bear more costs (Shabani et al. 2013). This has had a positive impact on the green
transformation of enterprises. In the process of enterprise operation, customers’ willingness
to tolerate a somewhat higher prices of green products can directly reduce waste and
environmental costs in their business, while maximizing returns. Customer collaboration
combined with internal green supply chain management is considered as the most effective
way to improve economic performance (Azevedo et al. 2011). But there are limits to the
extra costs that consumers are willing to pay for green products. A survey conducted in
Europe and the United States showed that more than 70% of consumers are willing to pay
an additional 5% for green furniture products, but if a premium exceeds 25%, only about
10% of consumers are willing to buy them (Kucher et al. 2019). That is to say, if the
premium of green furniture products leads to the loss of market competitiveness, then more
enterprises will tend to abandon the route of sustainable development and continue to
choose non-environmentally friendly materials and production methods to the
environment. Therefore, government intervention is necessary for enterprises in
implementing green manufacturing, and compliance with regulations remains the largest
single driving force for implementing green manufacturing practices (Bumgardner and
Nicholls 2020).
For the desk furniture itself, in order to show an environmentally friendly green
nature in the whole life cycle, it is necessary to organize each functional unit to conduct
effective communication and coordination in the early design and development stage (Boks
2006). In addition, 90% of the production costs can be controlled by product design
(Cordero et al. 2010). For example, the ESCC model fully integrates effective resources
upstream and downstream of the supply chain, thus effectively reducing the consumption
of materials, water, and energy across the entire supply chain (Susanty et al. 2020). The
design decision of desk furniture needs to consider the processing energy consumption,
service life, recyclable utilization and other indicators into consideration, so as to make
decisions on the type of material of the material, the geographical location of the material
supplier, the service life of the product, the recycling of products or parts, and the
processing mode of materials (Chen et al. 2019). It is worth noting that the desk reuse
system is better than the recycling system or life extension system, because the product
must have simple design and component materials. Otherwise the recovery cost is too high.
If the product cycle is long, then the company may lose in product sales (Besch 2005).
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However, this is only a comprehensive consideration of the enterprise's economic
performance and environmental performance, and it does not mean that the recovery of
products or parts is not important. On the contrary, that part of the abandoned resources is
still valuable. In terms of the current market environment, companies limited to producing
waste and ultimately using waste will suffer from a lack of integration of certain factors.
These factors include waste collection and transportation, the scale of business, the
industrial sector where the company operates, the amount and type of waste generated,
environmental regulations, and the level of development within a particular country. Thus,
the recycling system still needs to be further designed (Nemli et al. 2007).
EXPERIMENTAL
Target Respondents
A specially developed questionnaire was sent to 10 randomly selected Chinese
office furniture enterprises through an Internet-based questionnaire survey, covering
northern, southern and central China.
Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire was distributed to the relevant staff of office furniture enterprises
through the questionnaire star platform. The respondents have certain practical experience
in furniture production and relevant knowledge of furniture design.
The questionnaire used in this study was divided into three parts.
The first part of the questionnaire collected basic data of the respondents, such as
the province of the company, the name of the company, the scale of the company, my
position, etc.
The second part of the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to choose the
main materials and decorative materials of their company's desk products, so as to
understand the current material application trend of desk and the application trend of
decorative materials.
The third part of the questionnaire evaluated the disassembly of desk components
and the recycling of desk parts, auxiliary materials, and packaging materials. These factors
reflect the utilization status of desk materials in use and after abandonment.
Data Collection
The questionnaire title setting widely refers to the relevant literature using the same
research methods at home and abroad, and increases, decreases and modifies the
questionnaire title according to the relevance of the research content to ensure that the
questionnaire is rigorous and effective. Then the questionnaire was placed on the
Questionnaire Star platform to collect information. A total of 60 target respondents
answered the questionnaire within 3 days.
Data Analysis
The data from the questionnaires were compiled and tabulated using Microsoft
Excel to facilitate analysis. The analysis of data was conducted using the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS IBM, USA). A total of 60 questionnaires were
distributed and 56 were recovered, including 54 valid questionnaires, with a questionnaire
recovery rate of 90.0%. The coefficient alpha of Cronbach was 0.708, which
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Zhu & Niu (2022). “Green materials for furniture,” BioResources 17(2), 2228-2242. 2232
comprehensively shows that the data reliability quality was high and able to be used for
further analysis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Necessity of Applying Green Materials
As a major branch of furniture products, the annual consumption of office furniture
in China is very large. According to the analysis report on market prospect and investment
planning of China’s office furniture industry in 2020, the production of office furniture in
2019 was highly concentrated in eight countries that accounted for 78% of the global
production, of which China topped the list (Fig. 2). Moreover, China is also the leading
office furniture exporter at a world level, which increased its share from 35.9% in 2012 to
38.5% in 2021 of the global exports (CIFF 2022). Therefore, in the context of such a large
amount of production and export, the green development of China office furniture is
imperative. Moreover, the transformation from a linear economy model to a circular
economy model is also beneficial to enterprises, as it can improve their cost efficiency and
competitive advantage and reduce the negative impact on the environment and society
(Hartini et al. 2021).
Fig. 2. The production value of the major office furniture production countries in 2019
The application of green materials in office desk furniture should be considered
from two aspects. The first aspect should be the greenness of the primary construction
materials used for the desk furniture, where materials should be considered from the whole
life cycle of products, namely the raw material preparation, the product processing and
manufacturing, the utilization, the recycling, and the waste disposal. The second aspect is
the greenness of the related materials for the desk furniture, which refers to the packaging
materials and the protective materials for transportation, in addition to the main
construction materials for the desk. The quantity and nature of these packaging materials
are closely related to the main design of the desk.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
China United States Germany Japan India Canada Brazil Italy
Country
Production Value ($MM)
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Application of main materials and decorative materials for desk
According to the questionnaire survey, the investigation results of the main
materials and decorative materials of the desk can be seen in Fig. 3. Most of the main
materials of the current desk are wood-based panels and metal materials. Materials such as
solid wood, bamboo, rattan, and cloth are utilized relatively less. The decorative materials
are primarily wood veneer and decorative paper, and a few are decorated by coating and
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) decorative film.
Fig. 3. The use of structural materials and decorative materials for office desks
32%
26%
20%
11% 10%
1%
wood-based panel metal
solid wood bamboo/rattan
fabric other
33%
12%
12%
39%
4%
decorative paper coating
PVC decorative film veneer
other
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Fig. 4. The removability of desk components and recycling of desk parts, auxiliary materials, and
packaging material
Use of work desk components, components, and packaging materials
The disassembly status of desk components and the recycling status of desk parts,
auxiliary materials, and packaging materials are outlined below. As can be seen in Fig. 4,
Chinese companies are aware of the recycling of furniture materials but the implementation
is still less common, bringing most manufacturers to partake in partial recycling. Among
them, 50% and 41% of the parts and auxiliary materials of the desk can be recycled
respectively, and only 29% and 33% can reach the most recyclable category. In addition,
for packaging materials, 25% of employees said that their enterprises had not considered
the recycling of packaging materials. Therefore, it can be seen that some domestic office
furniture enterprises have insufficient implementation of sustainable development. There
are obvious defects in the R&D stage of furniture and the recycling stage of furniture and
furniture packaging materials.
Analysis on the Selection of Main Materials of Desk Furniture
Structural materials
The structure of the desk is the organization or connection form of the parts to
ensure the realization of the furniture design (Ke et al. 2014). The rationality of its design
has a direct impact on the recyclability, replaceability, service life, and processing energy
consumption of office furniture. The structural materials of environmental-friendly desk
29%
50%
12%
9%
Recycling of Desk Parts
most recyclable partially recyclable
almost unrecyclable not sure
33%
41%
11%
15%
Recycling of Auxiliary Materials for Desks
mostly recyclable partially recyclable
almost unrecyclable not sure
64%
25%
11%
Recycling of Packaging Materials
recycling not considering recycling not sure
22%
54%
18%
6%
Removability of Desk Components
not detachable partially detachable
mostly detachable not sure
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can be considered through several aspects. It is important to increase the commonality of
the parts in the desk (Hu 2020). Through the design adjustment, some parts can be
standardized and generalized to the maximum extent, which can reduce the energy
consumption of processing equipment and increase the interchangeability between parts
(Zhang 2017). Materials that can be easily damaged should be replaced by materials having
a long service life. The parts of the desk that bear impact load and cyclic load frequency
can be replaced by metal or other materials with compression and wear resistance. The
disassembly design and ductility design of the structure are considered with an aim to
simplify the processing procedure and improve the reuse rate of materials (Ren and Wang
2018). Finally, it is important to consider the application of recycled materials and new
materials. For example, the new type of ecological composite board made from wood-
based panel compressed with sawdust, furniture boards made from crop residue, and wood
plastic composite materials can improve the utilization rate and reduce the cost of the
materials (Jiang 2018; Tian and Zhu 2020).
Decorative materials
The surface decoration material of the desk can keep the desk stain and warping
resistant, protect the structural stability of furniture, and improve the service life of
furniture through its characteristics of wear resistance, water resistance, heat resistance,
and chemical corrosion resistance (Sun and Liu 2019). It is one of the indispensable
materials for furniture production but at the same time hard to avoid the negative impact
on the environment. Common decorative materials include coatings, decorative paper,
thermosetting resin impregnated paper, high pressure decorative laminate, and PVC
decorative film. With the continuous improvement of technology, there are many new
decorative materials and decorative technology emerging in the market. For example,
spinning cup electrostatic spraying technology and low-temperature powder electrostatic
spraying technology on the surface of wooden products and plastic film-reinforced flexible
decorative veneer preparation technology are new methods described by Peng et al. (2021).
Upgrading the technology from the original decoration materials can help overcome the
prominent problems of the original materials, simplify the processing procedures to a
certain extent, reduce the release of harmful gases, and improve the environmental
performance.
Auxiliary materials
The commonly used auxiliary materials of desk furniture include hardware
connectors, plastic connectors, adhesives, etc. The life cycle assessment-based on auxiliary
materials shows that the environmental impact caused by metal materials such as handles,
guide rails and hinges are higher than that of other materials (Liu et al. 2019). Considering
the high cost of hardware, the quantity and type of hardware shall be reasonably applied in
the production and design of desk, and the recycling work shall be done well. But some
parts such as plastic foot pads and plastic inset nuts are not easily recyclable, so it is
recommended to ask suppliers provide degradable materials whenever possible (Zhang and
Lou 2006). In addition, the impact of glue on the environment cannot be ignored, usually
hot melt glue, multiple-use glue, white latex, and resin glue (Tong et al. 2018). According
to the current application situation, formaldehyde synthetic resin adhesives cannot be
completely abandoned in the Chinese furniture market, but the application proportion of
environmental-friendly adhesives such as formaldehyde-free adhesives and biomass-based
adhesives is expanding (Ma et al. 2020).
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Analysis of Packaging Materials of Desk Furniture
Furniture packaging generally plays a role in protecting furniture and facilitating
transportation. Green packaging is environmentally-friendly and it has certain publicity
value. Relevant research shows that green packaging has a positive impact on consumers’
purchase intention and behavior. In addition to satisfying customers’ green consumption
psychology to reduce the negative impact on the environment, green packaging also can
enhance the enterprises brand image value and influence (Moorthy et al. 2021). The current
office furniture packaging materials include internal cushioning materials and external
wrapping materials. Based on the continuous improvement of preparation technology and
material properties, the external wrapping material presents the trend of thin-walled and
quantity reduced design (Li et al. 2018). The commonly used materials are corrugated
paper, honeycomb paper, wooden frame, and plastic products, among others. The internal
cushioning materials are also developing towards low cost and high utilization. The
commonly used materials are air cushion, bead cotton, foam board, foam plastic, and
wastepaper (Zhou et al. 2019). In addition, as green packaging research progresses, new
applicable green materials continue to improve. Research by Li et al. (2021) shows that
long-chain branched polylactide (LCB-PLA) foam is a completely biodegradable foam that
is environmentally friendly, lightweight, and heat-resistant. Long-chain branched
polylactide is an ideal substitute for non-degradable petroleum-based plastics.
Alternatively, Allaf and Futian (2020) used wood waste to prepare green packaging
composites and found that poly (ε-caprolactone)/sawdust-wood plastic composites
(PCL/SD-WPCs) can potentially replace traditional plastic packaging applications.
The selection of office furniture packaging materials needs to consider many
factors, one of which is the degradability and recyclability of the materials. Packaging itself
is specially designed for the logistics and transportation of products, and most of them are
disposable products with a huge demand. It is necessary to improve the recycling
mechanism or select degradable green materials to make full use of resources and reduce
the impact on the environment. Secondly, the rationality of packaging material protection
is also worth considering. The basic purpose of packaging is to protect the furniture in the
process of transportation, but also to avoid the waste caused by excessive packaging. Third,
the environmental-friendly packaging materials cannot be ignored. Green packaging
materials should be sourced from a variety of suppliers, have low energy consumption,
possess easy recyclability and recycling efficiency, and have a minimal environmental
impact in the preparation and disposal processes (Li and Sun 2019). Polystyrene films such
as polystyrene foam as cushioning gaskets and wrapped products in furniture packaging
have been banned or restricted by many countries for environmental reasons (Shi and Zhou
2018).
FINDINGS
Materials Serve Functions
The desk is a functional furniture piece, and the application of materials needs to
serve the function. Since people began to pay attention to humanized design, the functions
of the desk began to expand to include desktop lifting functions, timing functions, and
screen lifting functions, among others. Subsequently, the materials of the desk are also
gradually changing, from the original single material to a variety of materials (Fig. 5).
Therefore, the application of desk materials should consider the changes of functional
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trend. Currently, the office mode is affected by two main factors. One factor is the impact
of the intelligent era (Wu et al. 2017).
Fig. 5. Changes in the office. a) open office in the middle of the last century, b) modern open office,
and c) modern joint office.
(Picture source: a) https://www.ma3office.com/news/632.html
b) https://www.isunon.com/space/index/1.html
c) https://www.lamex.com/index.php/zh-hans/product/pier)
Smart furniture is rapidly evolving in terms of technology and product intelligence,
which provides unlimited possibilities for the development of office furniture in the future
(Xiong et al. 2021). The second factor is the influence of the Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID-19). Affected by COVID-19, the introduction rate of telecommuting in
worldwide enterprises has further increased, especially in Chinese enterprises (Cui and
Jiang 2021). Telecommuting market of China is still in the enlightenment stage, unlike
developed countries such as the United States and Japan, which have a certain market
foundation. When forced by the epidemic situation, many enterprises and employees felt
the benefits of the "on-site + remote" mixed office mode in the process, which promoted
the rapid development of telecommuting market of China and showed a trend of
normalized development (Jia et al. 2021). This means that the area of group office will be
reduced to a certain extent, the number of home office will increase, and the office demand
will change further in the future (Chen and Qi 2020). The application of green materials
needs to follow the trend under the overall planning of green design, constantly explore
new materials and meet the changes of functions.
Energy Conservation during Material Processing
In the furniture supply chain, one of the processes having the highest carbon
emission output is the material processing (Chen et al. 2019). In addition to avoiding the
use of heavy metals, fluorine-containing compounds, and other pollutants in the raw
materials themselves, material processing equipment and facilities should also be adjusted
to reduce the energy consumption and the output of pollutants. Many large furniture
companies have started sustainable energy projects, such as Haworth’s solar panel
renewable energy project, Herman Miller’s water recycling and reuse, and Sunon’s solar
photovoltaic power generation production. These projects have achieved considerable
results in reducing carbon emissions and saving energy. Small enterprises do not have the
ability to start large-scale environmental projects, so they need national policies to
encourage and guide enterprises’ independent innovation, strive to solve the coordination
problems of technology introduction and technological innovation, and promote
enterprises to complete green transformation (Liu and Zhang 2019).
a
b
c
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Recycling of Waste Materials
Many studies have shown that, compared with new products, the remanufacturing
operation of old goods can achieve the purpose of saving energy, saving cost and improving
material efficiency (Abbey et al. 2015). As we all know, statically designed products will
be eliminated in the process of continuous innovation and iteration. However, this cannot
be defined as the elimination of materials. It can meet the needs of the current market
through redesign and remanufacturing. At the same time, it also saves the material cost and
processing cost for the company. Combined lifecycle evaluations of each component
suggest that across the actual realized life of the constituent materials, multiple
remanufacturing cycles in each case lower the total environmental impacts beyond what
was achieved in the initial remanufacturing cycle; in other words, total environmental
benefit increases with the number of remanufacturing cycles (Krystofik et al. 2017). For
desk furniture, the service life is often longer than the enterprise that buys and uses it, so it
has a high value of recycling and remanufacturing. For materials with a high degree of
damage, they can be reused indirectly or used to generate energy (Luo and Xu 2016). For
example, wood-based panels with a high usage rate can be used as raw materials for other
panels such as recycled fiberboard or wood-plastic composite materials. Wood-based
panels can also have potential industrial applications such as in the pulp and paper industry,
and they can also be used as fuel for energy supply (He and Mu 2008).
CONCLUSIONS
1. As the material basis of the product system, green materials are a key step for office
furniture enterprises to achieve sustainable development. With the global advocacy of
the concept of sustainable development and the support and guidance of national
policies, the popularity and practical operation of green concept in Chinese domestic
office furniture enterprises are gradually increasing, and most enterprises are beginning
to pay attention to the application of green materials.
2. Through the analysis of the implementation of the concept of sustainable development
by worldwide office furniture enterprises, it is concluded that the Chinese domestic
high-end office furniture brands have a high degree of implementation of green
development, making the products contain very little or no materials that have a
negative impact on the environment, which approaches developed countries such as
European countries, the United States and Japan, where enterprises commonly have
higher environmental consciousness and most of leading furniture enterprises can
ensure that their products do not contain materials harmful to the environment. While
the implementation degree of middle and low-end brands in China is relatively low,
which cannot ensure the green of materials for the whole line of products.
3. The selection of structural materials, decorative materials and auxiliary materials of the
desk should be comprehensively considered from the aspects of service life,
recyclability and reusability in combination with the economic performance of the
company, so as to achieve the situation of mutual benefit between enterprise
development and ecological conservation. Most of the packaging materials of the desk
are disposable products, which should be recycled and reused to protect the
environment and save resources at the same time.
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4. Desk furniture materials should keep up with the development trend. The new
environmental-friendly materials should be constantly explored and developed together
with the design innovation and technological innovation of desk products.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful the support of the Joint Research program of the Sino-foreign
Cooperation in Running Schools of Jiangsu Province, and Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center
of Efficient processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, China.
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Article submitted: September 29, 2021; Peer review completed: December 19, 2021;
Revised version received and accepted: February 21, 2022; Published: February 24, 2022.
DOI: 10.15376/biores.17.2.2228-2242
