Vegan Shoes And Cardboard Furniture: Market Growing For Sustainable Goods

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There's a growing market for sustainable goods as consumers become more socially and environmentally conscious.

From furniture to food to fashion, more and more industries offer sustainable goods, says Lucy Norris, consumer trend expert at Karma Network, and consumers hunger for them.

"We're leaning more toward products made with a thoughtful production philosophy," she told CBS2's Vanessa Murdock.

She adds buying sustainable gives consumers the opportunity to be part of change for good -- sustainable signals ethical behavior in three arenas.

"The environment, society and also business," Norris said.

Her favorite example is high fashion heels by Veerah. The shoes are made from apple peel. Appleninealliance takes dried apple peel, pulverizes it and mixes it with their patented formula to create bio-based vegan leather.

Founder and chief warrior of Veerah Stacey Chang said the breathable, durable material perfectly fits their mission.

"To reduce our fashion footprint while we do good and look incredible," she said.

She said Veerah began when she couldn't find the shoes she wanted., so she made them.

"I was searching for example, vegan shoes or eco friendly shoes," she said. "The options were just not good enough for any modern woman today."

Shoes made of apple peel or even of recycled plastic bottles rank among the top sellers and part of the profits go back to the community.

Karton is boxing out traditional furniture.

"All made of cardboard," said Operations Manager Hadass Ormandy-Neale. "We've got the bed here, which is pretty extraordinary. It can hold up to two tons."

Ormandy-Neale demonstrated the simple construction with no tools required.

"It's origami furniture and that's why I really dig it," she said.

Every piece is 100 percent recyclable.