Mark of Sustainability

Date: October 27, 2009

WEST MICHIGAN - A new sustainability standard developed over several years by the Building and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association and NSF International has the potential to set the bar for sustainability standards in other industries.

More importantly, the e3 standard provides the office furniture industry and its suppliers with a transparent, straightforward industry-wide method to respond to inquiries about the sustainability of their products, according to industry leaders.

The e3 standard assesses four key impacts: materials and natural resources, energy and the atmosphere, human and ecosystem health, and social responsibility. The system is set up like the LEED rating system for buildings in that manufacturers get points for each provision they meet within each of those categories, and the points are a mix of scopes, including organizational, facilities and product specific.

Tom Reardon, executive director of BIFMA, said the organization developed the e3 standard and the new "level" certification program in an open consensus format, taking in feedback from all parties potentially impacted by the standard. As a consensus standard seeking ANSI certification, e3 can be self-declared by a company, but third-party evaluation is needed to receive "level" certification and use the "level" trademark on products.

Not too far into the future, izzy+ CEO Chuck Saylor sees the marketplace changing to reflect the journey the industry embarked upon with the level certification. In his lifetime, he believes izzy+ will not be able to sell products in North America that fail to reach a certain sustainability level.

And rather than see that as a problem, Saylor embraces that fundamental change. "That's what I hope is going to happen," he said, noting that his views are often called out as "pure heresy" by fellow industry executives.

The journey toward sustainability requires all companies to make sacrifices and change the way they do business. The BIFMA standards help set the framework for that change, he said, and provide a verified system of comparison.

"The recently introduced level standard enables customers and their consultants to make informed decisions about the environmental sustainability of the products they are considering," Brian Walker, CEO of Herman Miller Inc., told MiBiz. "Increasingly our customers are making environmental stewardship a key criteria for evaluating products they are considering. Level is designed to give them a reasoned basis for comparing and evaluating products on this critical dimension."

Paul Murray, director of environmental affairs and safety at Herman Miller, said the standard will be particularly useful in that all manufacturers will speak with a consistent message and language about sustainability. The manufacturer will hold all future and existing products to this standard, Murray said.

Not new questions

Many manufacturers had experience collecting necessary data for the e3 standard because of their past work with the McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry cradle to cradle certification, said Mary Ellen Mika, manager of supply chain at Steelcase Inc.

"If we hadn't first had experience with the MBDC standard, it would've been a more challenging adjustment," Mika told MiBiz. "Beyond the chemical reporting, we are asking our finished goods suppliers for more process-specific information than we've asked for previously to support the MBDC standard — so that's new. We're fortunate that our suppliers are meeting the challenge and want to support our sustainability commitments."

Mika noted that Steelcase's commitment to the protocol hasn't impacted which suppliers it uses, but has led to some changes in "what material —or what ingredients with materials–we use."

"If we uncover a possible problem, we are usually able to work toward a solution that allows us to continue buying from that supplier," she stated.

Sustainable journey navigation

Part of the e3 standard's game-changing nature is that they will force manufacturers to rethink how they design products, Saylor said. Products need to last longer and use less energy to make and maintain and operate.

"It does not come without a price — we'd all be naïve to think otherwise," Saylor said. "It takes a huge commitment, and some can afford to do more than others."

He recommended small office furniture manufacturers and suppliers find the low-hanging fruit and pick away at bigger concerns within their plants. They might not be able to bite off huge projects some larger companies can afford, but they can help reduce the industry's footprint over time with small actions.

Moreover, Saylor sees opportunities for small businesses to step up and make new materials and develop new processes to further the office furniture industry's journey.

"Here's the case where small entrepreneurial businesses with new materials and new processes could come to the industry and we'd welcome them with open arms," Saylor said. "We're at the tipping point. There are significant opportunities for manufacturers and vendors to partner better together to create sustainable products. The product is innovation."

The innovation, Saylor said, couldn't come at a more critical juncture in the course of human history.

"Take a look at climate change and our use of energy and what's going on in the world around us —we're in the midst of what I believe is nothing short of a crisis from an environmental standpoint," Saylor said. "One thing we lose sight of is that 6 degrees Celsius is the difference between an ice age and a warming climate. We've already seen an increase of 1.5 degrees over the last 50 years. That has incredible impacts around energy consumption and environmental sustainability. I have to go back to that in the backdrop in these discussions (about the BIFMA standards). We have to do something systemic. …It requires all of us to take very bold actions and get out of our comfort zone — to make a difference. That commitment is not always easy to make."

Saylor said the reasons to avoid the sustainability discussion altogether are plentiful and persuasive: the market won't accept such change in the industry because it simply costs too much.

"To me, level and the industry's commitment to create a well-vetted, thought-out industry position on sustainability is absolutely monumental in a lot of ways," Saylor said. "It's one of the first times an industry as a whole has taken a position on a global issue and established a meaningful standard to go on a journey of making products that support this healing process. Everyone rallying around these efforts, ultimately, will get us on a journey of change. That's the significance — we're on a journey around fixing something clearly broken. It's that monumental."

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This article appeared in the Monday, October 26, 2009 issue of MiBiz, read by upper management executives in West and Southwest Michigan. Print subscriptions are free to qualified individuals who are employed in West and Southwest Michigan. For further information about MiBiz, visit www.mibiz.com.