The Steelcase formula for sustainability

Sustainability has been an important philosophy within Steelcase for quite a while. Ever wondered how we incorporate sustainability into our products? Read on to find out…

We believe sustainability is part of our social contract. That’s why every step of the way…through design, manufacture, delivery and product lifecycle…we consider the impact of our work on the environment and uncover opportunities to make things better.

Designing for the Environment
Our approach to sustainability is holistic. We aim to produce products that are durable and long-lived; are made from safe and sustainable materials; can be easily disassembled and recycled at the end of life; manage waste and air emissions; conserve natural resources at every phase of the lifecycle and are made in socially responsible ways.

Materials Chemistry (MC)
Three years ago we enlisted the expertise of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) to help us better understand the chemical makeup of our products and production processes. We evaluate chemicals against 19 human and environmental health criteria and are working to eliminate them in our new and existing products.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
LCA measures a product’s impact on the environment…from material selection to the end of a product’s usefulness. We measure the impact of every new and existing product to continuously improve our performance.

Recycling & Reuse (R2)
Recycling and Reuse means choosing the right materials, as well as designing to enable the recycling of products. It also means offering a convenient way to dispose of products through the Steelcase Environmental Partnership.

Cradle to Cradle Product Certification: Your Sustainability Assurance Policy
Cradle to Cradle Product Certification is based on the most comprehensive environmental protocol that matches our sustainability philosophy. So, when you see that our products are Cradle to Cradle certified, you can be assured that we have designed them against stringent environmental standards and requirements.

We offer a growing collection of Cradle to Cradle products including:

• Leap, our flagship task chair is Silver Cradle to Cradle Certified
• Think, the FIRST EVER certified product is Silver Cradle to Cradle Certified
• Amia, our newest task chair, is Silver Cradle to Cradle Certified
• Move, stackable seating from Steelcase with Silver Cradle to Cradle Certification
• Tour Workspace, desks by Turnstone with Cradle to Cradle Certification
• Scoop Stool, cafe seating with Cradle to Cradle Certification
• Groupworks, tables and conference tables with Cradle to Cradle Certification

So how many of you have ever spent more time opening a toy package than you spent in assembling the toy afterwards? Or you find yourself with the kitchen steak knife in hand, the junk drawer scissors cast aside, as you piece, puncture and wrip at that dreaded plastic clamshell package, long past the point where you care whether you damage the product inside?

That consumer frustration has lead to the introduction of numerous tools for opening packages without the frustration outlined above. There is the As See on TV Pyranna, the One Open-sezz-me Plastic Package Opener that claims it cures “wrap rage” or the abysmally rated Package Shark Pro Opener with Bonus Scissors.

Then there’s the approach taken by Amazon.com: frustration free packaging. Like a good doctor that treats the cause rather than masking the symptoms, Amazon is going to the heart of the problem. As their FAQ says:

We work directly with manufacturers to box products in Frustration-Free Packages right off the assembly lines, which reduces the overall amount of packing materials used.

That means they are also not creating waste by throwing away the original packaging and re-packaging the items. And the scope of their plan is impressive:

This is just the beginning of a multi-year initiative. It will take many years, but our vision is to offer our entire catalog of products in Frustration-Free Packaging.

While I wouldn’t qualify Steelcase and the Steelcase Store as innovative when it comes to our packaging I do hope you’ll find our packaging to be “frustration free. Some strong hands or a basic utility knife will probably do the trick on your next Leap chair purchase. Although I admit that i just might have to add the Zibra-ZPCOPEN-OR to my Christmas wish list.

The Greenest City in America at night

Which city in the US do you think has the most LEED-certified buildings per capita? Portland? San Francisco? Maybe Boston?. Nope…its Grand Rapids, MI. Where is Grand Rapids you might ask? Grand Rapids is about 2 hours northwest of Detroit, and is the home for some of the largest office furniture manufacturers in the world including yours truly…Steelcase.

As you’ll see in this article by Fast Company, Steelcase has been instrumental at shaping the environmental movement in Grand Rapids which has caught on throughout the city. Here in Grand Rapids you will find the world’s first LEED-certified art museum along with LEED-certified manufacturing facilities, office buildings, restaurants, a bus station and a hospital.

You will also see Steelcase’s commitment to the environment evidenced in many of our most popular product offerings:

• Leap, our flagship product is Silver Cradle to Cradle Certified; made of up to 32% recycled content; is up to 94% recyclable and is Indoor Advantage Certified.
• Think, our most eco-friendly product is Silver Cradle to Cradle Certified; made of up to 37% recycled content; is up to 98% recyclable and is Gold Indoor Advantage Certified.
• Amia, our newest edition to the Steelcase family, is Silver Cradle to Cradle Certified; made of up to 32% recycled content; is up to 97% recyclable and is Gold Indoor Advantage Certified.

Since its inception, Steelcase has been finding ways to reduce its impact on the environment. We hope that you will do what you can as well…

Anybody that tries to make my life easier deserves a blog post don’t you think? Enter Google’s Sketch-up- app. It is increasingly becoming a tool of choice for architects and designers due to its intuitive features. And, it can be used by people who don’t have a lot of skill in the design area but like to act like he does, like myself. So what is Sketch-up? It is basically a 3-D sketching/modeling/drawing application that lets you design anything from a box to furniture to a house. You can even create your own collections and share them with the world or only with certain people. They offer some great tutorials that are very easy to follow AND intuitive….thank you Google. We even created our own collection in Google’s 3D Warehouse so you can basically dump this right into Sketch-up and play with it.

Well, I was reading in Business Week about $700B bailout (thank you government?) and in between all the doom and gloom was this article about how Sketch-up is helping Design go Green. The article talks about how Sketch-up works with Google Earth and other programs; this can lead to crazy things such as figuring out the optimal spot to put solar panels. That sounds way smarter than guessing.

Oh, the best part about Sketch-up. Its free. Well, the basic version is, but you only drop like $500 for the Pro Version, which allows you to dump you models into Photoshop and other programs.