Sustainable Garden Furniture

If you're buying garden furniture, choosing ethical wood is just as important as looks and comfort.

Summer just wouldn't be the same without alfresco dining and lounging in the garden. Brits love it so much they spent a staggering £575m on furniture, barbecues, gazebos and garden games in 2006 and it wasn't even that hot.

Sadly though, global demand for garden furniture is having a significant environmental impact in Asia, Africa and South America, where illegal rainforest logging is causing environmental damage and contributing to climate change. An estimated 75 percent of Brazil's (and one fifth of global) emissions are from deforestation caused by a combination of illegal logging and the conversion of forest to agricultural land. Experts estimate that 80 percent of the world's rainforests have been destroyed or degraded in the last 30 years. High street retailers are finally waking up to this problem and many are starting to source their furniture from sustainable forests with a transparent supply chain, and encouraging their suppliers to use sustainable timber.

If you want to be green, rather than buy new, you could look for second hand goods or maintain your existing garden furniture. You can buy eco-friendly varnishes and treatments that can revitalise tired, weathered wood and they will help to give your furniture many more years of useful service.