Sustainable Quality permeates everything

Our factories in Vaggeryd and Äng, for example, are heated with district heating as well as with geothermal heat. 100 percent of the electricity we use is CO2-neutral and is thereby classified as a Good environmental choice.

We continuously review and revise our wrapping and packaging to ensure that as little material as possible is used to protect the furniture during shipping. In the same vein, we continuously evaluate our logistical solutions to find the most environmentally friendly alternatives.

We also attach great importance to proper waste management. For efficient reuse, residue needs to be separated, and Swedese’s furniture is, as much as possible, constructed so that the materials can be separated without any special tools or processes. A special labelling system ensures that all leftover materials are sorted to facilitate the journey through their respective cycles. Metals, wood, paper, glass and plastic are sorted separately and then left for recycling. The goal is that nothing usable should go to waste.

By being involved in various stakeholder organisations working for more sustainable solutions, Swedese also takes responsibility for the development of the Industry. We are, among other things, included in TMF (Wood and Furniture Companies), Möbelfakta, SIS (Swedish Standards Institute) and TK 391 (Swedish Expert Group for updating and development of standards for quality control for furniture), and participate in projects led by RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden).

The most important contribution to a future of sustainable quality is, nonetheless, the aesthetic and functional life expectancy of the products we produce. The furniture itself is definitive proof that the well-balanced process generates sustainable quality.

Lifespan

Buy a sofa for your great-grandchildren

When we talk about furniture with sustainable quality, we constantly return to its lifespan. With sufficient care by itself a good piece of furniture can last much longer than a human lifespan. That chair, table, shelf or sofa isn’t just an investment for your life in the here and now. They are investments you make for your children, and for their children, and their children after them.

Lost-lasting furniture requires thoughtfulness and care. They require you to spend some time vacuuming and wiping them, but it is low effort for the feeling of having chosen a piece of furniture that your great-grandchildren will appreciate as a classic.

Of course, some furniture parts wear out as a result of daily use. At Swedese we work extensively with molded wooden frames. The body, and usually also the padding, is often in very good condition even when the upholstery needs to be replaced after long and faithful service . That's why we've provided several of our furniture pieces with a removable trim that makes the disguise so simple that you can renew the furniture’s expression by yourself.

Swedese furniture without removable covers can also be renewed. Through the Swedese Repair program you can find a certified upholsterer with us, or near you. Click here.

Production is also design
The production of sustainable quality does not start at the factory, but on the drawing board. Not only with the forming of a physical product, but with the design of the entire cycle of the product, including its manufacturing process, ecological footprint and combination of separation and recycling at the end of its life cycle.

The production system must first be designed and calibrated before it can allow the manufacture of furniture with sustainable quality. A long design process precedes production, and that process is as much about finding intelligent ways of realising the current design as it is about the form itself.

The issues we are asking ourselves in this phase are of crucial importance for the final result. Do we use the possibilities of our factories and suppliers as much as possible? Have we minimized waste as much as possible? Is there any way to increase the furniture's lifespan, make it easier to transport, or give it a smaller ecological footprint? Only when we have made all the changes necessary to be satisfied with the answers will we allow the new design go into production.

At Swedese, we strive for a manufacturing process that generates socially valuable and economically viable products that are harmless to the environment. For every new product that is produced, the process begins with research: on which materials are best suited, what steps need to be implemented in the factory, how the method can best be streamlined and optimized to be as resource-efficient as possible.

We do not just design a product. We design the product’s entire life cycle. Only then will the quality be sustainable in earnest.