At US Discount Office Furniture, "sustainable" is not a marketing word we sprinkle onto a product page — it is something we look for before a product earns a place in our catalog. In practice that means third-party certifications rather than self-reported claims, responsible and recyclable materials, energy-efficient design, and manufacturers who stand behind their environmental commitments. Here is what we look for, and what it looks like in practice with one of our most popular categories: acoustic privacy pods.
Anyone can call a product "green." What matters is whether an independent body has tested it. That is why we prioritize furniture carrying recognized certifications — like GreenGuard for low chemical emissions and ANSI/BIFMA for safety and durability. Our office pods, for example, are certified to Intertek's Clean Air GOLD standard, which tests for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and recognizes low-emitting products — so the enclosed space someone sits in to focus is contributing to healthier indoor air rather than off-gassing into it.
Sustainable furniture starts with what it is made of. We favor products built from renewable and recycled materials that avoid unnecessary plastics and harmful chemicals. The pods are a good illustration: built primarily from wood, a renewable resource, with most non-wood components made from recycled material, and fully recyclable at the end of their life. Manufacturing is low-waste by design, too — offcuts are repurposed into the shipping pallets the products travel on instead of being thrown away.
The most sustainable energy is the energy you never use. We look for products designed to reduce consumption in daily use. The pods include integrated motion-sensor lighting and ventilation that automatically switch off after someone leaves, adjustable interior lighting, and an optional skylight that brings in natural light — so an empty booth is not quietly drawing power all afternoon.
Where a product is made matters for its footprint. Domestically manufactured furniture avoids the CO₂ emissions and energy that come with shipping heavy, bulky goods across an ocean. Our office pods are designed and built in Berkeley, California, with the majority of components sourced from US suppliers — an environmental win that also happens to make delivery faster and more reliable.
The best sustainability stories go beyond the product itself. We like partnering with manufacturers who invest in the environment directly — the maker of our office pods, for instance, plants a tree for every booth it produces through a partnership with Greenspark, which funds verified reforestation projects. It is a simple, measurable commitment: one pod ordered means one tree in the ground.
Choosing certified, sustainably built furniture lets you outfit your space without working against your sustainability goals. It supports green building documentation, answers the questions procurement and facilities teams increasingly ask, and signals to employees that the company is paying attention. And because commercial-grade products are built to last, the most sustainable outcome of all — furniture you do not have to replace — is built in. This is the standard we apply across the catalog, not just to one category.
Want to dig into the specifics? Read about GreenGuard-certified furniture and what BIFMA certification means, browse our office privacy pods, or talk with our planning team about outfitting your space.
