Four Hands has. The furniture design, manufacture and import company - which will exhibit at next week's World Market Center summer market - considers sustainability not only an environmental decision, but also part of a smart business plan.

This summer's market will feature about 40 companies that consider themselves "green" and market environmentally responsible furniture, according to Dana Andrew, a market spokeswoman. She said this market's green exhibitors are not only pioneers in terms of using sustainable materials, but also in design and style.

Four Hands started to notice the rising level of talk about the environment, even within the furniture industry, two years ago, said Jeff Hiller, vice president of marketing for the 12-year-old company.

"We looked internally and examined the products that we were then manufacturing. Were they good source products?" he said, referring to a practice of using woods that are not endangered and metals without intense production impacts on the environment. "At the time, a little over a third were from good resources."

So Four Hands owners decided to rethink where they purchased their woods and metals - and to incorporate that green thinking into design elements as well.

"The people that are responsible for bringing products to market have to accept some responsibility for saying, 'This is a smart thing to do and I should do it,'" Hiller said.

Four Hands started using more recycled teak, building some collections entirely with recycled products, and switched to mango wood, which is harvested as part of the natural life cycle of fruit plantations, to build its furniture.

The company also uses recycled teak and elm from China and recycled mahogany and Philippine tanguile wood, as well as recycled aluminum, which creates about 5 percent of the emissions that manufacturing new aluminum does.

In two years Four Hands has increased its percentage of responsibly sourced furniture from a third to 50 percent.

And Four Hands has also joined the Sustainable Furniture Council, a trade organization for manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and nonprofit groups who want to set guidelines for sustainable furniture production.

Environment Furniture is displayed in a World Market Center showroom on Tuesday. The Peroba Collection combines 100-year-old reclaimed wood from Brazil with other materials. Photo by Steve Marcus

Steve Freeman, vender resource manager for furniture retailer Room & Board, will be part of a panel discussion during the market about what furniture companies can do to be environmentally sensitive - from using domestically-grown products to printing only one catalogue a year to not using rainforest wood.

"It's not only about being a good Earth steward, but it's also profitable doing it," Freeman said. "We have to do our part to help the situation. If we don't start changing the way we treat the world we don't know what the potential outcome could be.

"There is a cost to it, but there's also business to be had if you're in the forefront. People are looking for retailers with products that are healthy for them and the environment." For some green retailers, environmentally friendly furniture has always been part of their business plan.

"It's just the way we do it," said Gina Doctor Dean, the spokeswoman for the 12-year-old, Los Angeles-based Environment Furniture. "The company has been reclaiming wood for a long time and wants to continue to be green. Even if it's more costly, it's just the way we build our furniture."

Environment Furniture searches small towns and villages in South America for derelict barns and abandoned dwellings to reclaim the wood it uses to build everything from beds to benches.

Even the buildings where Environment Furniture retails its products incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly features, such as energy efficiency.

"If that's what people want at the moment we can appreciate that, that the 'go green' thing is big, but we've been Environment Furniture for a long time," Dean said. "We've been reclaiming materials for a long time before the green bandwagon came around."