Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
SFC Promotes "Sustainable Saturdays"
September 3,
2014 by in Furniture Retailing, Green, Industry 
The Sustainable Furnishings Council is promoting a new shopping program, #SustainableSaturdays, designed to help customers make better choices in the selection, care, and disposal of their furnishings.
On the second Saturday of each month, beginning in September, SFC challenged retailers to take steps toward helping shoppers make smarter choices.
Those include:
* Building relationships with local Habitat for Humanity ReStores and chapterx.
* Offer PIPs (Positive Impact Points) rewards for certain purchases.
* Offering to take away and donate furniture that customers are replacing.
* Building a more robust recycling program.
* Deepening relationships with designers by hosting events for design society chapters.
* Enhancing relationships with “green" builders.
* Reaching a new audience with LEED-certified Green sales associates.
The campaign’s first challenge is to keep furniture out of our landfills. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that almost 10 million tons of furniture will clog the nation’s landfills this year.
In partnership with Habitat for Humanity ReStores, SFC challenges the public to donate their unwanted home furnishings to a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. SFC seeks to recover more than 10 tons of furniture before the end of the year.
SFC members can take advantage of the campaign to promote best practices, to deepen community involvement, to tell their vendors' stories and to increase store traffic and sales. As the months pass, there will be quarterly #SustainableSaturdays themes that businesses can capitalize upon.