Panels & Furniture March/April 2022

IN PERSON
“This is your story”: Building
a sustainability message
with Climate Positive Now
As end consumers increasingly
demand firms to be sustainable,
the value of crafting an appealing,
engaging sustainability story
increases. What if there is a
framework which businesses can
use to display their commitment
to sustainability? Climate Positive
Now is one such framework,
and its founder Kenn Busch tells
Panels & Furniture Asia all about it.
By Yap Shi Quan
What exactly is Climate Positive Now?
Kenn Busch: Climate Positive Now describes
a category of products and their impact on our
world, as we have always produced them. It is
a movement towards toward a more liveable
planet created by wiser choices in furniture
and construction materials, and the best
sustainability story any building product can
tell that will resonate especially with younger
consumers.
Climate positive is a term being promoted by
furniture brand IKEA and a growing number
of global brands, and currently, it is used by
North American composite wood-panel and
decorative surface suppliers to describe their
products. It began as a more understandable
way to say carbon negative, describing any
process or product that stores more CO2 out of
the atmosphere than is released, which can be
confusing to consumers. The great thing about
climate positive is it also takes the conversation
beyond carbon to include other benefits of a
product, company or industry. IKEA plans to be
climate positive as a company by 2030. Others
are shooting for 2040, 2050, and beyond. It is
a huge effort to become climate positive as a
company, especially a global retailer.
To be clear, Climate Positive Now is not a
certification. Rather, it is a framework within
which we can tell a science-based story about
the inherent advantages of working with wood.
It is also a fresh way to take the conversation
beyond, “Is it recycled and can I recycle it”.
When designers and consumers think about
new office furniture, a new kitchen, closet or
residential furniture, we want them to think
very hard before deciding how much high
carbon-footprint materials like glass, metal,
concrete or solid surface they want to use.
Currently, there are eight companies backing
the movement, with more coming onboard.
How will they contribute to the initiative,
and more pertinently, to becoming climate
positive?
Busch: Any company that contributes to
increased specification and longer use of
composite wood panels is part of the story —
all stakeholders, if you will. So, if you produce
formaldehyde resins for composite wood,
this is your story; same if you make panels
or laminates, value-added components, or
furniture with these materials. If you design
with these products, this is also your story.
It is important to note that the Climate Positive
Now story applies to our products now, without
having to change anything about the way
the manufacture or use these materials. Our
sponsors are contributing by helping to spread
the word, and teaching their own sales and
marketing teams how to lead with this message
any time they’re talking to industry colleagues
and customers. With every company that joins,
28 Panels & Furniture Asia | March / April 2022