Sitting at non-toxic desks might not make those long hours staring at the computer any less draining, but it will ensure your workday isn’t draining on your conscience and the environment, too.
In a typical work week, people spend an average of 5 hours and 41 minutes per day at their desks, and even if we aren’t feeling the effects at the moment, sustainable computer desks keep us safer with non off-gassing finishes and glues—especially on those days when we ourselves feel glued to our desks.
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Index: Non-Toxic & Sustainable Desks
- Branch Furniture Jump to brand
- ergonofis Jump to brand
- What WE Make Jump to brand
- Hoek Home Jump to brand
- Work From Home Desks Jump to brand
Branch Furniture
About Branch Furniture
Price Range: $499–$2,849
Branch Furniture makes sustainable standing desks and traditional sitting desks for large corporate environments and home offices alike.
These durable desks—like the flagship Standing Desk—feature distinctly modern, sleek designs with features like adjustable height and easy cable management. Best of all, the Branch Warranty covers items for ten years, providing customers with replacement parts and repairs to encourage the slow-furniture movement.
Branch Furniture’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Branch Furniture’s desks feature tops made from MDF with impact-resistant melamine finishing paired with a powder-coated steel base.
Although wood composites like MDF and plywood can contain small traces of formaldehyde, Branch complies with laws and regulations to meet safety standards of non-toxic desks. Their products go through strict testing for safety and durability through in-house and third-party agencies.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Branch partners with manufacturers who share their values and maintain high standards of ethical and environmental practices.
They aim to provide fair wages and safe working conditions to all workers involved in manufacturing and delivery, though we’ll be touching base for more specifics on where their products are made.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
The Branch Flex program allows their corporate clients to request pick-up of their used furniture for refurbishing without any additional cost. They also reduce waste in packaging by with post-consumer recycled materials.
ergonofis
About ergonofis
Price Range: $945–$2,395
As more and more individuals work from home, the standing desk concept is becoming an increasingly popular option—especially since long hours of sitting have been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other negative health effects.
That’s why Canadian brand ergonofis offers non-toxic standing desks built from responsibly sourced wood.
The Sway Standing Desk is one of their most popular options. It combines the natural look of a wood top with modern technology, like easily adjustable heights so you can move from sitting to standing with ease.
ergonofis’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The desks are made from wood, like cherrywood and walnut, sourced from sustainably managed North American forests. ergonofis only uses water-based non-toxic desk top finishes.
Supply chain & labor practices:
As a Certified B Corp, ergonofis is committed to providing fair wages and safe working conditions for its employees. They design and build their products in the province of Quebec, Canada and source local materials whenever possible.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Partnered with Shopify Sustainability, ergonofis provides carbon-neutral shipping to help reduce its overall footprint.
The Almost Perfect catalog offers products containing slight defects at discounted rates to reduce production waste. These extra sustainable standing desks are still high-quality—they just don’t meet ergonofis’s meticulous standards.
Community & charitable giving:
The company donates 1% of its profits to the David Suzuki Foundation and its mission to protect environmental diversity. They also volunteer twice a year with Le GRAME, a public interest organization dedicated to cleaning up the city and spreading awareness about sustainability.
What WE Make
About What WE Make
Price Range: $1,595–$3,125
Chicago’s What WE Make—AKA wwmake on Etsy—uses sustainable materials to make finely crafted non-toxic hardwood desks.
They’re made from repurposed wood that is so beautiful, that you might easily find yourself distracted from work by the gorgeous grains and colors. Some have shelves while others come with drawers to store all your eco-friendly stationery and office supplies, like the beautifully simple Rustic Office Desk.
What WE Make’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
100+-year-old reclaimed old-growth hardwoods are finished with a VOC-free plant oil-based finish. Choose between patchwork (a mix of repurposed woods to create a patchwork aesthetic) and plank (reclaimed oak planks that span the entire length of the desk).
Supply chain & labor practices:
The old-growth wood is harvested from midwestern barns and will thus have beautiful variations (weathering, nail holes, knots, splits, etc.). Being a family-owned-and-operated brand, the wood is turned into each eco desk by brothers Dan and George Quinn in Algonquin, IL.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
WWM uses emission-reducing manufacturing practices, like hand welding and manual woodworking techniques.
Hoek Home
About Hoek Home
Price Range: $195–$795
Hoek Home produces unique, functional, and high-quality eco-friendly standing desks made of FSC-certified wood.
The NYC-based company has a circular design ethos with its patented snap-lock system. The modular design allows customers to quickly assemble and disassemble their furniture, making them easy to store and transport—which means you’re more likely to hang onto your new non-toxic computer desk for life.
For those who live in small spaces or are frequently in flux with a hybrid work environment, the Home Office Desk folds up almost flat in seconds, “so your home doesn’t always have to be your office”.
Hoek Home’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
All of Hoek’s furniture is made from locally sourced sustainable materials from Montana and sustainably sourced FSC-certified plywood from Canada. The base is made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) made from 100% post-consumer waste, like recycled milk jugs.
Hoek uses non-toxic desk finishes and glues.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Each HoeK piece is designed, precision-crafted, and hand-finished by highly skilled makers in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Combining cutting-edge CNC technology with traditional carpentry techniques, each HOEK piece is meticulously crafted to your specifications.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Hoek provides customers with a lifetime warranty covering any defects in materials or workmanship. They don’t charge any fees for repair or replacements, ensuring a circular design ethos.
Work From Home Desks
About Work From Home Desks
Price Range: $569–$2,519
Work From Home Desks seeks to improve on the standing desk concept with ultra efficient and adjustable non-toxic office desks for adults and kids alike.
Their flagship WFH Desk is made from EPA and FSC-certified Birch Plywood, with a fully modular design so you can sit or stand. Other items, like the Lambda, offer an extra minimalist desk design that fits neatly against a wall and sticks out only a couple feet.
Work From Home Desks’ Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
WFH crafts sustainable desks from premium, EPA, and FSC-certified wood. Though it is plywood, it’s tested for low-formaldehyde, meeting EPA and CARB Phase 2 non-toxicity standards.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Work From Home’s desks are crafted in Torrance, CA, using raw wood sourced from sustainably managed forests with legal logging operations. They work with local, reputable plywood manufacturers who meet the highest industry standards.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
From the initial prototype, WFH has managed to achieve a 50% reduction in energy consumption and a 30% reduction in material waste, like the number of offcuts for each unit.
They also provide customers with Factory Seconds that are damaged, scuffed, and don’t meet their criteria at lower prices to prevent further waste.
Jenny is a UK-based sustainability writer and tea-drinker extraordinaire who has a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. Her travels have taken her to organic permaculture farms in the UK and Nepal but you’ll mostly find her working on the veg patch with a garden fork in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Jenny writes for ethical brands and purpose-powered publications on a broad range of sustainable living and conscious consumerism topics. She is passionate about organic and regenerative farming, nature reconnection, and the small things we can do each day to better care for our planet.
