The grill is sizzling, the sun is setting, and the fireflies are flickering. The perfect picture, right? But it could be miles (or yards) better if it featured sustainable outdoor furniture that’s better for you, your guests, and our collective entertaining area—the planet.
And that’s what we’re curating here for you. Our favorite companies that are crafting outdoor furniture using responsible materials and non-toxic finishes, ethical labor practices, and transparent supply chains.
As we refresh our articles in the coming months, we’ll be consulting our new Brand Rating System, which examines furniture brands (and all other brands) across a comprehensive set of ethical and sustainability-related criteria, like climate action, product circularity, chemical use, and more. Learn about this selection process in our explainer here.
Otherwise, keep reading for our top outdoor furniture makers to make your backyard a true eco-paradise.
We independently research all featured brands and we ask them to confirm their claims. In many cases we personally review recommended products. This post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you buy something. Learn more here.
Sustainable Garden Furniture We Give A Pat(Io) On The Back
SJ tried and tested for comfort, Loll Designs does eco-friendly plastic outdoor furniture right, using recycled plastic that can again be recycled at the end of its life.
We love MasayaCo’s. hardwood, featuring durable teak, natural finishes, a localized supply chain, and seed-to-seat production.
Index: Eco-Friendly Outdoor Furniture Brands
- Loll Designs Jump to brand
- The Grainery Jump to brand
- Emeco Jump to brand
- Yardbird Jump to brand
- MasayaCo Jump to brand
- 86 Vintage Jump to brand
- West Elm Jump to brand
Loll Designs
About Loll Designs
Price Range: $125–$6,185
Loll Designs wants to make your backyard a part of the circular economy. They started using recycled post-industrial plastic for building custom municipal skate parks but quickly turned to making outdoor chairs, tables, storage units, and more—all made entirely from post-consumer plastics. Break out a bar cart when entertaining friends and family, or choose one of their many seating options for a quiet solo sit in your backyard sanctuary.
Loll Designs Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Loll Design uses recycled plastic, particularly #2 milk jugs, for which each product uses about eight—totaling over 135 million recycled. You can also recycle it when it’s reached the end of its lifecycle, including the aluminum insets and stainless steel fasteners.
For any that feature Sunbrella upholstery and foam cushions, these aren’t recycled, but Sunbrella is a hard-wearing fabric designed to withstand harsh outdoor environments.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Loll Design purchases all materials and manufactures domestically in the USA.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
88% of products have obtained a Cradle to Cradle SILVER™ certification, and they also recycle over 88% of manufacturing waste at a local recycling plant. The rest is incinerated for the production of electricity.
My Personal Review of Loll Design’s Lollygagger Lounge Chair:
“I personally tested out the Lollygagger Lounge Chair, and you can now catch me hanging out in it whenever the weather allows (in fact, I’m sitting in it and writing this review right now!). The high back and backward sloped seat are very comfortable, and I especially love the wide armrests that can securely support a laptop, hold beverages, and more. The weather-proof and fade-resistant material is super sturdy, yet the whole thing is also incredibly easy to assemble. After it arrived at my door in a space-saving flat-pack form, I was able to completely assemble the chair by myself in about 30 minutes.”
Review by Amber McDaniel, SJ’s Head of Content
The Grainery
About The Grainery
Price Range: $29–$6,935
The Grainery has everything you need to deck out your backyard—sustainable outdoor furniture, antique doors, scrap wood, vintage signs, and other outdoor fixtures.
Most pieces are more decorative, but why not add some class to your yard with the Elegant Swirl Gazebo. Allow some Virginia Creeper to create a canopy over its dome roof, pop your favorite chair or table set in the center, and enjoy your shady summer oasis.
The Grainery’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Most of The Grainery’s selection is second hand, made from various woods and metals. Some pieces are made-to-order, with variations in the material choice.
Supply chain & labor practices:
The Grainery is based out of Payson, IL, where they have a warehouse full of antiques gathered from estate sales around central Illinois and architectural salvage from local suppliers.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
When you purchase from Etsy, shipping of each item is carbon offset.
Emeco
About Emeco
Price Range: $340–$4,930
Emeco’s first chair, the 1006 Navy, was built by hand in 1944 from recycled aluminum for Navy warships and tested to last over 150 years. If that’s not sustainable, we don’t know what is. Emeco still carries its original chair alongside benches, stools, seats, and storage units— all featuring that timeless quality that’s suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.
Putting a modern twist on a classic pastime, the Heritage Recycled Rocking Armchair will let you rock on the front porch just like your grandpa used to, with a bit of cutting-edge tech to boot.
Emeco’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Roughly 90% of Emeco’s products are made from recycled materials—including recycled aluminum, recycled PET, recycled wood-filled polypropylene, wood, eco-concrete, and reclaimed cork.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Emeco crafts all of its outdoor furniture at its factory in Hanover, Pennsylvania, all the way from welding to shipping.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Emeco has a chair-to-chair recycling program, where their recycled plastic and aluminum products can be recycled endlessly.
They measure their carbon footprint (and that of each product) using a “cradle-to-gate” measurement, and all Emeco products qualify for LEED credits, too, so if used in a commercial setting, they can help buildings obtain LEED certification.
Yardbird
About Yardbird
Price Range: $150–$6,480
Who says trash doesn’t belong in a beautiful backyard?
Not Yardbird, who uses mostly recycled sustainable materials for their affordable outdoor furniture, including sofa sets, loveseats, sectionals, and tables. Go big AND go home (and never want to leave it) once you deck out your deck with the comfortable Langdon Outdoor Large Sectional Set, featuring an ultra versatile design that means you can rearrange and reshape as needed.
Yardbird’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
This recycled plastic outdoor furniture brand uses—you guessed it— intercepted ocean plastic from especially susceptible areas in the Philippines. Their wicker sets, for example, are 64% recycled, utilizing HDPE plastic wicker combined with fade-and-water-resistant synthetic Sunbrella fabric and foam.
The frames are made from recyclable aluminum or responsibly sourced Indonesian teak wood.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Their outdoor furniture is crafted one piece at a time with materials sourced directly from suppliers in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Final assembly takes place in Vietnam, China, and the US, though they’ve never confirmed their ethical policies with us regarding these factories.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Although they use greener sea freight transportation, it still creates plenty of carbon emissions—which is why Yardbird offsets 100% of its footprint with the carbon offset program carbonfund.org.
Aside from featuring over 430,000 pounds of reclaimed plastic (in 2022 alone!), most components are again recyclable at end-of-life—though their 10-year frame warranty suggests that won’t be anytime soon. They’ve also cut the size of their packaging by 30% from the industry standard, 50% of which comes from recycled sources.
MasayaCo
About MasayaCo.
Price Range: $175–$2,595
To keep your outdoor space looking natural, kick back with MasayaCo’s solid wood chaise loungers, dining tables, end tables, and other seating options.
We use one of their wooden stools in our house, but they have plenty of outdoor utility as well—especially if you’re in need of a temporary potting bench.
Otherwise, take a load off after a long day of gardening in the Verbena Patio Chair, which features a stylish, minimalist design of closely spaced wooden slats that won’t have your bottom hurting by the end of your beer.
MasayaCo.’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
MasayaCo. uses FSC-certified teak for all products—and often nothing else— finished with natural, low-VOC, and non-toxic outdoor furniture oil. Woven seating options feature a handmade polyester manila cord.
Supply chain & labor practices:
MasayaCo.’s sustainable furniture is entirely handmade by 150 artisans in Managua, Nicaragua, which is also where all wood is sourced.
Carbon commitments and green practices:
MasayaCo supports a seed-to-seat method of production. The company helps to plant hundreds of thousands of trees each year, far more than they harvest. Between a localized supply chain, using solar kilns to treat their hardwood, and Made Trade’s carbon-neutral shipping, they bring the natural green to your yard.
86 Vintage
About 86 Vintage
Price Range: $10–$27,000
86 Vintage has one of the widest ranges of sustainable garden furniture we’ve seen. While it’s more fashionable and less functional on the whole, you’ll find a curated collection of antiques, vintage items, and primitive decor to go along with your garden recycling theme.
Go plant-specific with vintage wire plant stands, or opt for the Folding Metal Garden Bench. Its chic rusted white wire frame would make for the perfect support for climbing plants like Morning Glory.
86 Vintage’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Products are second hand and made from various materials, like wrought iron, steel, pine, and other woods.
West Elm
About West Elm
Price Range: $100–$9,096
If you don’t live near one of their 100+ US retailers, West Elm’s website makes shopping for outdoor furniture eco-easy.
Almost 100% of the brand’s in-house product line is designed in the company’s Brooklyn studios, while select items are sourced through ethical brand partners. Not everything is what we would consider eco-friendly patio furniture so be sure to read the materials section carefully.
Start your search with the natural stone and cement Terrazzo Drum Outdoor Round Coffee Table, featuring a safe, water-based finish. Because it’s designed for indoor and outdoor use, you can just move it inside for a little living room flare once the backyard BBQ season is over.
West Elm’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Some of the furniture is GREENGUARD Gold Certified, while their wooden furniture is usually made with FSC-certified hardwoods from sustainable forestry-certified sources.
Some of their other furniture uses natural fabrics, others feature yarn-dyed weather-resistant cushions made of synthetic fabrics—so be sure to take care to make them last.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Fair Trade Certified since 2014, 95% of West Elm’s products are designed in-house, but they collaborate with artisan collectives around the world to bring designs to life.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Williams-Sonoma, West Elm’s parent company, aims to be carbon-neutral across its value chain by 2025. West Elm has helped train more than 550 farmers in more sustainable practices through the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).