Environmentally Sustainable Office Chairs
Furniture With A Low Carbon Footprint Reduces Waste to Landfill
Oct 1, 2009
Environmentally-sustainable office furniture displayed at the recent annual ARIDO IIDEX/Neo-Con Canada conference and exhibit in Toronto Canada, included executive chairs, task chairs and other office seating. The choices for the environmentally-conscious facilities manager, office manager, purchasing officer and others are widening.
These chairs demonstrate that there is no sacrifice of ergonomics, comfort or esthetics for the sake of environmental responsibility. Because much of the effort manufacturers are making to reduce the environmental footprint of their products revolves around reduction of waste and reuse of materials and components, the potential exists for sustainable office furniture to be economical for the buyer also.
Sustainable Design Criteria
The criteria to be applied in the choice of office chairs from the environmental point of view fall into three categories:
- The components and materials of the chairs, amount of recycled and recyclable materials and the use of materials from renewable sources;
- In the production of the chairs, the amount of energy and renewable sources of energy used, and the environmental nature of the manufacturing processes such as by reduction of waste;
- What happens to the chair after its use — how easily it can be recycled and what services are available to aid reuse or recycling. Key to this is the number of components and the ease with which a chair can be dismantled and its components reclaimed; this can also extend the life of the chair by making it easy to replace worn or broken parts, so that partly worn or broken chairs are not thrown into landfill.
Recyclable Materials
Canadian manufacturer Teknion displayed two new chairs, the Marini executive chair and Visio task chair. Both can be easily taken apart, and the components of both are more than 90% recyclable. Its Contessa chair contains 52% recycled content (based on figures from the American Iron and Steel Institute) and 95% of the materials can be recycled.
Teknion was one of the first office furniture manufacturers to use no wood from old-growth forests, a move it made in the 1980s. It also previewed at IIDEX seating fabrics made from bamboo and recycled polyester.
From 2003 to 2006, Teknion’s manufacturing operations reduced consumption of electricity by 26%, natural gas by 39% and waste to landfill by 56%, as percentages of sales volumes.
Recycled and Recyclable Chairs
Humanscale demonstrated its new Diffrient World chair that consists of only eight major parts and can be easily dismantled. Because of its reduce use of raw materials and fewer manufacturing processes, two or three of these chairs have the same environmental impact as a single traditional task chair, the manufacturer says.
As much as possible, Humanscale uses aluminum in its products. Its aluminum is 100% recycled and recyclable. Its Freedom and Liberty chairs contain 62 and 54% recycled content and are 90% and 93% recyclable, respectively.
A new seating fabric from a renewable source is Humanscale’s Ginkgo made from 100% wool.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Office Chairs
U.K. manufacturer Boss Design has a policy of considering the “whole life impact” of its chairs to ensure none need go to landfill. Its chairs are easily broken into components for recycling, and it contributes used chairs for charitable redistribution. It claims that 100% of its chairs are reused or recycled.
In 2007, it recycled 98 tonnes of cardboard and 771 kg of paper and reduced its waste to landfill by 15%. In two recent years, it reduced gas and electricity consumption by eight and six per cent, respectively.
The Canadian company, Tayco, which now imports Boss Design products into Canada, displayed the new Moneypenny and Lily task chairs.
LEED Certification
The choice of chairs such as these can help to reduce the carbon footprint of any office facility, and can contribute to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S., Canadian, U.K. or other Green Building Councils.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
