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NeoCon Green Pages: The Green Effect on Furniture

BIFMA/Sustainability Assessment Standards

-- Interior Design, 6/9/2008 12:00:00 AM

Whether called sustainable, green, or ecofriendly, one need only glance at a magazine rack in an airport or bookstore to see some environmental phrase jump off the covers of many publications. And when a retail giant like Wal-Mart begins considering the environmental impacts of its suppliers, the movement has reached a tipping point.

The green building movement has also affected the furniture industry in a substantial manner. Due to the pioneering efforts of the U.S. Green Building Council and the LEED Green Building Rating System, there has been a dramatic increase in awareness of the environmental impact of buildings. For this reason, furniture producers see value in developing products, processes, and organizations that are more sustainable and have a reduced environmental footprint both from many perspectives.

Exactly what does green and sustainable mean? How does one company define green as opposed to its competitors? How do customers effectively evaluate the various environmental performance attributes of products? The rapid increase in sustainability and the potential for resulting market confusion has prompted BIFMA (Business & Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association) to spearhead development of a standardized method of evaluating the sustainable attributes of business and institutional furniture products.

BIFMA noticed this trend several years ago and began working with a broad and diverse group of stakeholders including the A&D community, regulatory agencies, customers, NGO's, and others to develop a common measurement tool to evaluate the environmental attributes of furniture products.

BIFMA utilized the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) open and balanced consensus process to ensure that all stakeholders' input is considered. The resulting standard will be clearly stated and available for use by any customer, producer, certification body, or supplier. Stakeholders will know exactly what is required in the standard and anyone can provide comment and input into its developmental evolution.

The voluntary standard is nearing completion following more than two years of development and contains criteria addressing life-cycle assessment, material and natural resource efficiency, renewable materials, recycled content and recyclability, end of product life issues, waste management, energy efficiency, embodied energy, climate change, material toxicity, identification and reduction of chemicals of concern, and corporate social responsibility factors.

Anticipated to be an American National Standard before the end of this year, this open, balanced, consensus-based standard will provide a broad-based, multi-attribute evaluation tool for customers seeking to specify more environmentally preferable products and companies seeking a road map on how to provide them.