Green Products can be made cost effecivly: Just talk to Ikea.  They have been using sustainable woods and materials for decades and are considered one of the lowest price retail stores.  Ikea has long been a leader in designing, purchasing and  selling products that cause less harm.  Their stance on forestry is really strong.

• The origin of the wood must be known
• Wood must be produced in compliance with national and regional forest legislation;
• Wood must not originate from protected areas, unless felled according to the management plan for the area;
• Wood must not originate from intact natural forests or high conservation value forests, unless certified according to a Level 4 standard recognized by IKEA;
• Wood must not originate from plantations established after 1994 by replacing intact natural forests.

Ikea not only has these standards for woods, but they have taken corporate responsibility to a new level.  They are involved with all steps of their supply chain to ensure all workers are treated properly and  suppliers are fair.  They audit screw and nail suppliers as well as their paint suppliers.  If they have been accepted into the Ikea Way system, then they can sell their materials to all Ikea product manufacturers.

As for cost of certified woods, prices range from no difference at all to 20 to 30 percent higher. Price depends on the species of wood and how close you are to where the wood was harvested and processed.  If you can make use of local certified woods, your pricing should not be effected much.

Here is a simple way to do the math.

60-70% of your cost is in your materials.

So, a $100 table = $70 material cost. 
If you increase the material cost by 20%
The material cost = $84
New Table cost = $114
Cost Increase = 14%

Not only Ikea is following this trend, Home Depot and Lowes are both pushing
FSC-certified products including shelves, lumber, underlayment, boards, cabinets, plywood, paneling, molding and  blinds.

According to Lowe's wood policy, the retailer is aggressively phasing out the purchase of wood products from endangered forests and giving preference to those that come from independently certified, well-managed forests. In particular those certified by the FSC.

Recent price comparisons on low to zero VOC paints indicated only a 10 to 20% higher price which should have a small but tolerable adjustment to your overall cost. 

To switch and use water based paints is not as much of a direct expense, but mostly requires training and setting up new procedures.

Other materials listed earlier can also be produced at almost no price difference, the only difference is the will power and knowledge to make your company and your products more sustainable.

The focus of the articles is to encourage companies to take the first step and  break long held beliefs that Eco Friendly is either a marketing ploy to charge higher prices or that Environmentally Safe can’t be sold at competitive prices.  We won’t reach sustainability in a day and  the first steps towards sustainability will not be perfect, but they are steps that are necessary for our childrens futures.