This week is about getting workspace ready for the year ahead and getting a little greener with some early eco-minded Spring cleaning. So, to kick it off here are some tips for greening your office furniture.

Consider Redux

GreenBiz recently reported on the booming industry of furniture recyclers and refurbishers stating that this sector represents more than $1.2 billion of the $13.6 billion US commercial furniture industry. The boom reflects that companies are catching on to the inherent benefits of buying used. Opting for gently used furniture saves money and helps keep perfectly good products out of landfills. Personally, I’ve always gone for the redux picks and have been happy with the quality, aesthetics and prices of second hand office furniture.

New & Green

If second hand isn’t your style there are plenty of green options in new office furniture. Here are some key factors to keep in mind when making the investment:

Sustainable materials: Consider the material source, manufacturing and finishes of the materials that go into that new chair. With wood furniture, choose products that are sourced from sustainably managed forests like FSC-certified from the Forest Stewardship Council. If you’re buying in the metal aesthetic, get to know the company’s manufacturing process and find out how they manage hazardous materials and waste. Also keep in mind that locally produced goods from locally sourced materials have less embodied energy because they don’t rack up energy miles in transportation. And even though you are buying new doesn’t mean you can’t still buy recycled, look for recycled content in structural materials, fabric and packaging.

Durability: If you are buying new, buy for the long term. Nothing says unsustainable like a new product that becomes trash in a few years. While buying higher quality furniture requires a larger initial investment, the longer it lasts the bigger the return and the less likely it will head to an early landfill grave.

Good Practice: The company you are buying from should at least have an eye on sustainability. The AD Interiors chairs pictured above come from a UK company that, although their products aren’t true green, they do offer choices that are carbon neutral through a partnership with Climate Care.

These are just a few ideas on greening office furniture, if you’ve got more share them with all of us in the comments! I’d love to hear them!

Post from: EveryJoe

Greening Your Office Furniture – Spring Cleaning Week

If you’re not familiar with the book Cradle to Cradle, it is a manifesto that has given new direction to 21st century industry, if not yet fully in practice at least in thought. The basic principle behind it being that nature and commerce are not mutually exclusive of each other and that the two can co-exist in harmony.

The author of the “hyper-green” tag line article refers to this harmonious market as almost an alternate universe using terms like “in this world, [referring the C2C world] you can flush the dirty diapers down the toilet, spray household cleaners without fear of poisoning your houseplants (or family) and was your surfboard without feeling guilty about the fish.” I’m wondering what’s so over the top about all that?

The term ‘hyper-green’ was used throughout the article several times and each instance made me pause like “these hyper-green products are coming to a shopping mall near you” or “some trend watchers predict these hyper-green products will multiply and move mainstream as more people become environmentally aware.” Hello?

The reality is that green certification has been in practice in a number of industries and applications. For instance the Forest Stewardship Council tracks lumber products worldwide to ensure that commercial forests are managed properly. USDA Organic gives standard measurement to the organic food industry. The US Green Build Council certifies green buildings with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.

What C2C does is bring standardized labels to a wider range of products, very wide, giving consumers a better idea of what actually constitutes a green product. It’s not a far-fetched, over the top idea. It is an ambitious undertaking but certainly not ‘hyper’ – which when used as a prefix implies over, above, beyond or excessive.

My point is green is green, it’s pretty simple. C2C is a new market, yes, but far from over the top. What is over the top is the amount of greenwashing that consumers have to sort through these days to filter out the goods from the wannabe greens.

I’ll be following C2C as it takes off and personally think that come next year when NuTec, the first Cradle to Cradle convention, comes to Germany (where I live BTW) there will be excitement, there will be new markets, there will be success and the only “excessive” considerations will be the products who have failed the environment.

You also might like:

• Are you being greenwashed? by Sarah Rich of Worldchanging

Post from: EveryJoe

Hyper-green or just green?