When you are furnishing your home you are probably thinking of matching materials, colours and styles to create the atmosphere you want, but you can also give consideration to environmental and ethical factors.

The areas where careful choices can make the biggest environment differences are:

• flooring

• wall coverings

• furniture

• curtains, cushions and coverings

• bedding

The main things you might want to consider are:

Sustainability: has the product been made from materials from a sustainable source? This means choosing wood and natural fibre products over plastics, but also ensuring the material is responsibly sourced. See our section on FSC certified wood.

Fair trade: if the materials have been imported, have they been sourced by people who receive a fair wage for their work, and in a manner which supports their local economy? See our section on Fair Trade.

Local: the more local the source of the raw materials, the less energy is required to transport it to your home. See section on Food Miles.

Low Energy: some products require a lot more energy to produce them than others, for example foam backed carpets require a lot more than naturally backed carpets.

Recyclable: once you’ve finished with the product, will you be able to pass it on to someone else, or use the materials to make something else? Wood is an obvious choice to meet this concern.

Recycled: is the product itself made from recycled materials? See section on recycling.

Organic: you might also want to consider whether any natural materials used have been grown organically, which reduces the harmful chemicals present, which could leach out over a period of time.