Webinar, Recording
SFC Presents 2025 Webinar Series:
Tackling Toxics: Healthier Furniture, People & Planet
Thank you for your interest in SFC Education!
This webinar, originally presented live on April 9, 2025, by scientist Arlene Blum, Ph.D., was recorded for later viewing. Whether you're watching for the first time or revisiting the material, we warmly welcome you. Below is more information about the presenter and the content of the webinar.
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Rather than addressing the thousands of chemicals of concern one at a time, the chemical class approach provides a basis for purchasers, designers, and manufacturers to reduce the use of entire families of harmful chemicals in furniture and other products. The Green Science Policy Institute developed the class approach so that regrettable substitutions can be avoided and improved purchasing and policy decisions can contribute to healthier products, people, and environment.
The Sustainable Furnishings Council designs education, working groups, webinar topics, tools, and resources based on the "Sustainability Six:" Carbon, Health, Social, Waste, Water, and Circularity. We encourage manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and designers to integrate sustainability targets and goals into their company policies, based on the six categories. This webinar focuses on the health aspect of sustainability, and our presenter Arlene Blum Ph.D., of the Green Science Policy Institute, talks about how chemicals can enter and disrupt our body's systems, and when released in the environment they are hazards to the earth's systems, which can also be a disruptor to human health.
Additional resources from the Green Science Policy Institute
Arlene Blum, Ph.D.
Green Science Policy Institute
Arlene Blum Ph.D., biophysical chemist, author, and mountaineer is executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute and a Research Associate at UC Berkeley. Her science and policy work with government and business has contributed to preventing the use of PFAS, flame retardants and other classes of harmful chemicals in furniture and other products world-wide. Arlene led the first American and all-women’s ascent of Annapurna I and the first women’s climb of Denali. She is the author of Annapurna: A Woman’s Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life. More found on her website.
Additionally: Blum’s awards include her 2024 inclusion in the Forbes Sustainability Leaders list of 50 global change makers, 2022 Honorary Doctorate from the University of San Francisco, Induction into the California Hall of Fame, 2017 UC Berkeley International House Alumna of the Year, 2015 award for lifetime achievement of a Reed College graduate, and National Women’s History Project selection as one of 100 “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet.”
