Office Furniture Companies Scream To Be Green
Do some research on office furniture companies these days and you’ll see one word repeated everywhere: sustainability. I had the fortunate luck to visit the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It was actually very enlightening and uplifting. We walked past showroom after showroom of office furniture companies. Each one seemed to prominently feature how green they are. They are all showcasing why they are greener than the next. I’m not naïve enough to think that they are doing this out of sheer love of the planet. There is definite cash to be made. Help a company get a LEED certification or anything similar and they get tax credits. Even if their motives are based on greed (which is a bit harsh), it still means that the manufacturers, the plant workers, the secretaries, the dealers, the sales reps, the buyers, etc. are all learning about helping the environment and being socially responsible. Its an execellent byproduct.
Office furniture companies are buying into the whole “cradle-to-cradle” or C2C idea. Some have been practicing it for years. This means that companies are making products in the most efficient means possible. The goal is to be zero waste, use as much recycled product as possible and also make the product recyclable in itself. The facilities that these companies have or are building are also very lean and mean. That’s why I don’t think its all about greed. Its about green.
The HON company is leading the green path. A great new product that I was able to checkout is the Nature CoreTM Fiberboard. The board is used predominantly in the cubical walls. It is made from a plant called kenaf which is in the okra and cotton family. Kenaf grows very rapidly - reaching its full height of 12-15ft in one year. It is über-sustainable.
A great exhbit of C2C is in the fabric. Fabric waste from HON products is ground up and made into the fabric that is used to line the trunk of automobiles. From trash to treasure. According to their site, HONThinksGreen.com, HON takes sawdust and turns it into an alternative fuel source. HON even recycles paint overspray - collecting it and turning it into gray paint down the line. “Bottom line: Less waste equals less cost. That makes our lean, green approach a good business decision as well as a smart environmental strategy.“ As they say on their site, green is not trendy; its part of their culture.
Virtually every office furniture company showroom that I passed was bragging about their sustainability. I recently saw a piece on Herman Miller on the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet. HM is dedicated to using sustainable products in their manufacturing. From sustainable wood to recyclable materials. They have also partnered with companies to incorporate a trade-in program when the consumer feels the product is at the end of its life. The Mirra chair is 96% recyclable and made with 42% recycled content. The chair is also easy to take apart to recycle locally. Herman Miller is the only company that I know of that a farmer’s market on its campus. That not only shows dedication to the local community, but also to the health of its employees.
Izzy Design makes some fantastic furniture. I first heard of this company and saw it in person at the Chicago Center for Green Technology. I was there a few weeks ago in their new resource center and it was amazing. They had a few different seating options from Izzy including the HÅG Chair. From the Izzy site: By 1995, HÅG had already started using recycled car bumpers, salad containers and ketchup bottles for the plastic seating components. HÅG also contributes to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing 100% of its electricity from windmill producers. In other words, HÅG has become a beacon, leading the industry into a new environmental era.
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[...] to promote office furniture, I suppose. He was recruited to be in the HON Furniture showroom. I wrote about HON awhile back. I’m not sure that Rainn will actually help them move any furniture or if people will even [...]