Office Furniture Company Hires Dwight Shrute

Neocon, The World’s Trade Fair, began today in Chicago.  This is a pretty cool conference - a little pretentious overall - but cool.  There is a huge focus on sustainability.  Many of the companies are embracing Cradle to Cradle as well. 

My first stop today was the press room.  I was happy to see that they not only had someone manning the trash station to ensure proper recycling, but they were composting as well.  The plates were compostable.  The glasses were made from PLA corn-based plastics.  The flatware was made from potato starches and fully compostable. 

After that stop, I hit up a ton boothes and show rooms.  I saw everything from carpet made from recycles PET plastics, to sustainable fabrics, to plant-based foam cushioning mainly for office furniture.  I’m sure I’ll be writing more about those different products and I know I’ll have a giveaway of somekind - probably some tote bags.  Stay tuned.

So the title of this little article.  Rainn Wilson, star of The Office, was on hand 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 remember that they saw “Dwight Shrute” at the HON showroom.  They’ll just remember HON.  It was quite a surprise as I was being given a tour by a young girl who was barely out of college.  I’m not sure if she caught on that I really didn’t care about the latest furniture styles and designs.  I cared about their GREENGUARD certifications and what they are doing to be sustainable…then she sprung the surprise on me…”oh yeah - I wanted to show you that Rainn Wilson is here…he’s Dwight on The Office.”  I prefer to think of him as “Arthur on Six Feet Under” or closer to the heart is “he was that one celebrity blogger on that one Entourage episode.”  I think to myself - did she just say that “Dwight Shrute” is sitting 10 feet from me?  Oh - that’s what that long line is for?  I’m an indie movie fan and loved Rainn Wilson as the host of The Spirit Awards last year.  So yeah - I follow his career a bit - no intentionally - he just happens to be in good stuff - like Juno.  Anyway…

Tomorrow, I will be taking a tour of the Merchandise Mart (the home of Neocon).  The Merchandise Mart is so large that it has its own zip code - even zip+4, probably.  Anyway - why would I take a tour of this building?  It’s the largest LEED-EB Silver certified building - a retrofit, existing building, LEED certification.  I hope to provide more details on that after the tour.

PS - look for a photo gallery in the coming days.