What are furniture miles

Furniture miles are a way of measuring how far furniture has travelled before it reaches your hotel. It’s a way of understanding the true environmental impact of fitting out your hotel bedrooms. In other words, how sustainable are you?

What Does That Mean?

In real terms, understanding ‘Furniture Miles’ means thinking about where your supplier is based, where they source their raw materials and how these factors impact on the environment. For example, for a typical 100-room hotel the overall travel distance for the bedroom furniture will be over 40,000 miles if sourced from Asia. In contrast, if the same 100-room hotel sourced from Curtis, they will only consume 1,500 miles on haulage – a saving of 38,500 ‘furniture miles’.

What Can I Do?

By introducing a range of sustainable practices within your business model will ensure you are addressing environmental issues. In particular, by opting for refurbishment over new construction, you are already reducing your carbon footprint.

Choosing a British manufacturer, as opposed to overseas firms, will not only reduce your carbon footprint as goods are travelling shorter distances and improve your sustainability, but it will also positively contribute to the British economy helping to retain skills within the UK and increasing social benefits to local communities.