In the next part of our ongoing sustainable series, we take a look at how upholstered furniture retailer DFS is progressing.
In the latest DFS Annual Report 2025, the retailer detailed a number of areas across its sustainability strategy, sharing an insight into progress made and ongoing targets. Key highlights include its Net Zero and near-term emissions reduction targets approved by Science Based Targets initiative, over 90% of its timber and leather coming from certified sources, and implementing a Biodiversity assessment across key UK sites.
“We are pleased that during the year our publicly committed net zero plans were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, validating both our 2050 and near-term decarbonisation targets,” DFS said. “Given the vertically integrated nature of our Group, our journey to net zero will not be linear. In some areas progress is dependent on the development of innovative technologies but we are pleased with the progress we are making, and we remain committed to our ambitious targets.”
DFS aims to cut emissions by 90% across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2050, with the latter scope being a particular focus. “Our emissions are heavily weighted to Scope 3 and we launched an ‘In This Together’ engagement campaign with our suppliers to set their own science-based targets,” DFS said. “We sought buy-in to cover 20% of our Scope 3 emissions and surpassed this by achieving support for 59%.
“Tackling our Scope 1 emissions is proving challenging due to the significant investment required to upgrade our legacy electricity infrastructure and the limited availability of electric/hydrogen heavy goods vehicles on the market. However, we remain committed to our reduction path and are working to address these challenges over the next few years.
“We are already making good progress to ensure our business can make the most of the opportunities of a circular economy and deliver sustainable performance and are working to ensure responsible and sustainable use of materials through transparency and traceability. All these endeavours will support the future EU requirement to provide a Digital Product Passport with every product, a requirement which we have started work on, with a pilot in FY25.”
Last year only a handful of DFS’ manufacturing partners had calculated their Scope 1 and 2 carbon footprints. However, by June 2025 this had increased to more than 41%, with over 35% also calculating their Scope 3 emissions.
Detailed within the report, DFS outlined that Scope 3.01 increased by 34% in FY25 due to the increased sales volume, but additionally, the inclusion of more detailed spend analysis of materials within its own manufacturing. “Materials such as foam, fibre and polyester fabrics have a higher emission factor than generic household furniture, which we use for the majority of purchase goods for sale,” DFS continued.
“Spend-based calculations are used to ensure the veracity and auditable data, but we recognise that the emission factors do not accurately reflect the true impact of our spend. Verified activity data is the ideal and we plan to move to this methodology in future. The increased sales volumes, especially in motion furniture ranges, are also reflected in Scope 3.12 end of life emissions.
“Our capital goods emissions (3.02) reduced significantly due to the cost reduction programme, while business travel (3.06) has increased significantly, driven by a rise in employee flights related to supplier engagement activities, including product development and supplier quality audits.”
Shifting the focus to another key part of its strategy and net zero ambition, DFS revealed that it has made “great progress” with its Sofa Cycle initiative by creating its first-ever Digital Product Passport (DPP), and developing its first Lifecycle Assessment – a tool to help better understand the impact of its materials and processes.
“Launched in 2020, The Sofa Cycle is our framework for assessing the impact of every part of our operations and value chain – from material extraction and responsible sourcing to the end of life of our products,” DFS said. “It highlights how each stage of the product lifecycle is interconnected, starting with the raw materials we choose. Because materials have the biggest impact on both our carbon footprint and biodiversity, reducing material use through a circular approach is critical to achieving our net zero goals.
“To lower this impact, we design and manufacture our products for longer lifespans and repeated reuse. We are also working to improve other key areas, including low-carbon upstream transport, reducing operational emissions, and using minimal but effective packaging. End of life processes for upholstery remain an industry-wide challenge, especially for legacy products that may contain restricted substances (POPs).
“The Sofa Cycle framework underlines the complexity of the net zero journey. Many elements of the product lifecycle need to evolve, but tackling them in isolation can sometimes increase the footprint. Building a truly connected and integrated approach takes time – but we are making progress.”
DFS also has several targets for its value chain, focusing on the environmental impacts of the raw materials it uses as well as processing. The retailer set dates by which it asked suppliers to meet these targets and, as the dates expire, its requirements move from ambition to expectation. Included within these targets are:
Timber
Requirement: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) accreditation to ensure timber is sourced from responsibly managed forests.
Target: FSC and PEFC-certified timber used in all products by December 2025. FY25 progress: 93%.
Textiles
Requirement: Textile mills with OEKO-TEX STeP certification so that we know they have responsible environmental management systems and ethical labour practices in place. The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) or equivalent, as we also strive for recycled material to be used in new textiles.
Target: 20% of all new textiles contain recycled content by June 2027. FY25 progress: 4%.
Leather
Requirement: Leather Working Group (LWG) certification for all tanneries and curers to ensure they follow best practice in water and chemical management. Target: Leather used in upholstery sourced from LWG-certified supply chains by December 2024. FY25 progress: Achieved.
Packaging
Requirement: The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) or equivalent, given that single-use plastic is an important issue for the environment and our stakeholders.
Target: 50% of all plastic packaging contains 50% recycled content by June 2026. FY25 progress: 14%.
DFS has also set in motion processes to tackle biodiversity. “With biodiversity loss an increasingly important issue, it is essential that we understand how our operations and value chain both impact and rely upon the natural world,” the retailer said.
“Our work to address this is underway and we have honed our focus to make sure we have a meaningful impact. We began by using the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter, mapping our timber and leather supply chains to forests and farms respectively.
“However, the geographic spread and nature of their impact is so diverse that meaningfully tackling this at scale is challenging. That said, we shared the insights gathered with our key suppliers to enable the right conversations in their own value chains.
“For now, we are focused on where we can make a direct impact: at our own sites in the UK. We have commissioned assessments from biodiversity specialists covering ten of our locations, and we are looking for opportunities to support biodiversity net gain through rewilding and habitat creation.
“Moving forward, we intend to use the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework to enable comparable reporting and identify and report material financial risks associated with natural resources in our value chain.”
Other areas of progress within its sustainability strategy include electric vehicles, energy efficient in-store processes, infrared heating and waste reduction. “Over the past four years, we’ve switched our company car scheme to hybrid and electric vehicles only, fully replacing all petrol and diesel cars,” DFS added.
“We’ve also introduced hybrid and electric vans for our service managers. To help more colleagues make the switch to electric, we’ve launched a salary sacrifice leasing scheme and are installing more EV charging points across our sites – for our teams, visitors, and even the local community. To reduce fuel consumption, we have continued to see the positive impact of postcode integration and geo-fencing in our logistics planning, which creates more efficient routes for our delivery teams.
“Another priority is the continued implementation of our sites’ decarbonisation strategy, linking it to store acquisitions and refits, and including installing better insulation and energy efficient lighting. As a result of our trading peaks, and the most viable time to implement these changes this has meant that much of the energy saving we achieved in FY25 occurred after the winter peak.
“In two of our distribution centres, which are large and hard to keep warm, we have undertaken an infrared panel heating trial to ‘heat the humans’, rather than the cavernous space around them. This trial will continue throughout FY26.
“Addressing our use of resources and waste is also critical to building a circular DFS. In FY25, our total waste was 9,543 tonnes, 5,544 tonnes of which were recycled and 3,535 tonnes were converted to energy. Most of our waste is product packaging which, to assist our customers, is removed from customers’ homes at the point of delivery and responsibly recycled by our waste partner.
“At The Sofa Delivery Company, we are developing a new waste management programme to reduce landfill waste. The first phase of this initiative – to make sure every site has the right infrastructure to support different types of waste – is now complete. Next, we will focus on engaging colleagues to ensure better compliance.
“Working with external partners, we have also established a new Company-wide Waste & Packaging Working Group to look at the key drivers of waste, devise circular systems, and reduce the amount of material we use where possible.
“We are committed to reducing our environmental impact across our supply chain and operations to safeguard resources for future generations.”
