At the end of August,2017,Eu published the new voluntary standard of green purchase for furniture category.This standard’s emphasis is to encourage consumers to extend the life of furniture and furnishing products so that EU can strengthen the circular economy through the standard of green furniture purchase.This is new challenge for China contract furniture manufacturers whether home furniture manufacturers or custom hotel furniture manufacturers.

The new standard formulated this time includes three parts:new furniture purchase,furniture refurbishment service,scrap service of furniture purchase.The new standard is divided into technique standard and incentive standard.According to current evidence from the scientific literature,the material and accessories from furniture accounts for 80%-90% of environment influence.In Europe,the public institution is the main consumer of the green purchase,who hope to make contribution to sustainable development by choosing environment-friendly commodities,service and projects through its purchase power.Although now public green purchase is voluntary and purchaser can put the standard into the bidding documents as per his own will,business of green public purchase helps EU play key role in the resource saving and environment-friendly development.

The green procurement of furniture products mentioned in the new standard refers to independent items or built-in furniture that can make person work,study,rest on them.This almost covers all the furniture including office furniture,home furniture and hotel furniture).But the following items are not included:street lamps,railings,fences,ladders,clocks,playground equipment,independent mirror or wall mounted mirror,electric pipe line,road fence,construction products such as steps, doors and windows,floor coverings,cladding,and furniture suitable for transportation vehicles and material more than 5% of the total weight such as the wood panels,soft wood,,bamboo,rattan,plastic,metal, leather,coating,textile,glass and liner.

The standard stipulates purchaser should purchase endurable and appropriate furniture conforming to relevant Europe standard and make sure the furniture is partly or wholly made of renewable material(such as wood).When purchasing furniture whether commercial furniture or office furniture, the purchaser should ensure the legality of wood source , set the total volatility of furniture and maximum of organic compounds,the emission limit of specific formaldehyde from wood panels and decoration material and purchase those furniture that is easy to disassemble,repairable,recycled furniture in the scope of warranty.So Chinese furniture makers should buy material from legitimate source and also ensure the material is qualified for EU standard.

The furniture in the scope of EU Green Public Procurement actually has no relevant operation cost.So the factor that influence life cycle cost is the service life of the furniture,which is related with the material durability.But more important is to make strong furniture that can be repaired and refurbished by combining accessories and material.Furniture refurbishment is appealing to high quality and expensive furniture(such as professional high end office furniture and five star hotel furniture),however in terms of the simple task of refurbishment,technician can operate on spot while other task may need to be transported to the workshop.About the refurbishment service of existing old furniture,the standard stipulates that before providing tender requirements,the public institutions should evaluate the type ,quantity and status and so on of the furniture that need to be refurbished and explain the operation that will be carried on as specific as possible(for example,respraying and metal processing,repairing the wood surface,redecoration and desk repairing and so on).The tenderer should refurbish the furniture supplied by the contracting authority according to the requirements stipulated and provide the detail arrangement for all the renovation work.The tenderer should provide the the warranty of at least two to three years from the date of delivery or replacement service.In addition,tenderer should also provide the service agreement about delivery of goods,return of goods or on site maintenance and commit the purchaser need to pay extra cost during that period.

The life service about the furniture procurement in the standard indicates the tenderer should directly collect the furniture from the location that the purchaser specify ,evaluate its status and provide reuse and recycling service for the furniture at the end of its life.If there is some furniture or accessories that is not apt for reuse,one way is to send them to different kinds of recycle bins after classifying them according to plastic,metal,textile,wood and son while other rest material is sent to energy recovery station at the unified way.Another way is to recycle the metal parts from the furniture accessories that can not be reused and the rest is sent to energy recovery station.In the tender documents,the tenderer should provide the details about the furniture collection,reuse arrangement,ways of recycling and how to achieve reuse

For Chinese furniture manufactures whether home furniture factories or hotel furniture factories,on one hand,they should use good material to increase the furniture life and on the other hand,they should try to use material that can be recycled .For those Chinese furniture suppliers who get business directly from the authority institution in Europe should find good partners in advance so that they can help to recycle and repair those furniture.