Evaluation of greener design alternatives for office furniture at affordable price points

Transcription

1 Evaluation of greener design alternatives for office furniture at affordable price points By: Allen Luccitti REPORT #SSIL STAPLES SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION LAB Building 81, Room Lomb Memorial Dr. Rochester, NY 14623

2 Evaluation of greener design alternatives for office furniture at affordable price points Allen Luccitti REPORT #SSIL STAPLES SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION LAB Building 81, Room Lomb Memorial Dr. Rochester, NY

3 Funding for this research program was provided by the Staples Sustainable Innovation Laboratory and the Golisano Institute of Sustainability within the Rochester Institute of Technology. The author gratefully acknowledges Ms. Cheryl Mullen and the Staples team for providing significant product information and Mr. Jake Swenson for reviewing the manuscript.

4

5 Executive Summary The manufacturing, use, and disposal of every product has unintended negative impacts on the world around us, from the mining of raw materials, to the depletion of natural resources such as water, energy and fossil fuels, or through harmful emissions to air, land, or water. Though every product has an impact, the type of impact and when in the life cycle the impact occurs can be different for different product categories. Products such as a computer server are nearly always running and therefore its energy use is the most significant impact, whereas the impacts of a disposable paper towel are mostly in the raw material acquisition and disposal. The Staples Sustainable Innovation Laboratory (SSIL) within the Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) whose core mission is to research and help accelerate and deploy innovative and sustainable business practices investigated the environmental hot spots in office furniture. The main focus of the research was identifying the potential design practices that may reduce or mitigate the environmental impacts. The furniture manufacturing industry has significant worldwide impact and is a major contributor to the U.S. economy with U.S. furniture factory shipments of $23.2 billion in This industry produces a wide range of furniture, including bookcases, cabinets, chairs, desks and filing cabinets. U.S. furniture imports also increased 7.7% in 2013 to a total of $19.7 billion, with imports from China reaching $11.6 billion or 59 percent of the total furniture imported into the U.S. 1 Sustainable design practices must therefore be universally applied around the world. Office furniture has many new and competing environmental claims in the marketplace; however, the environmental preference landscape is clouded with the complexity of material types used, influence of the U.S. green Building Council s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environment (LEED), and significant end-of-life management requirements. This project looked at the raw material choices, design choices, manufacturing efficiency practices, end-of-life management, and multi-attribute industry standards to identify the significant environmental impact areas across the life cycle. The environmental impacts were considered in parallel with traditional design requirements such as cost/pricing, ergonomics, durability, comfort, and aesthetics. Several tasks were performed to identify the environmental impacts of office chairs, which were used as a surrogate for the office furniture category. The first task performed was a literature review of current practices and standards to better understand the current state of the industry, areas of concern and best practices being applied. The literature review provided a framework for developing the design and development recommendations of more sustainable office products. Task 2 investigated current life-cycle assessments of office chairs to identify the life-cycle stages and materials that had the largest impact or provided the best opportunity for improvement. Several manufacturers of office chairs make publicly available life cycle assessments or environmental product declarations which indicate the products life cycle impacts. Task 3 was a detailed product and material assessment of three typical home office chairs. This assessment included a complete disassembly analysis of each chair. The research and product assessment performed in all three tasks resulted in a comparative methodology that can be adapted to evaluate the environmental performance of numerous products. An example of the performance 1 D. French, FURNITURE PRODUCT: Imports climb 7.7% in 2013, Furniture Today, March 28, 2014, Staples Sustainable Innovation Lab 5 Evaluation of greener design alternatives for office furniture at affordable price points SSIL13 005

6 indicators selected to encompass the complete life cycle of a product and can be seen in Table 1. The criteria are derived from sustainability standards commonly used in the furniture industry such as cradle to cradle (C2C), Business institutional furniture manufacturers association (BIFMA), and product category rules (PCR) for office furniture, plus include criteria developed during the course of the three project tasks. Table 1: Rating Criteria and Product Comparison Excellent Good Fair Poor Criteria Task Chair Manager Chair Environmental benchmark Material Impact Free of Material Hazards Preserve Natural Resources Reduced Environmental Intensity Manufacturing Excellence / Transparency Energy efficient and benign processes NA NA NA Reporting / Third Party Certifications LCA/EPD available Distribution Packaging NA NA NA Operability User friendliness and ergonomics Life Extension Easy caring and cleaning Length of guarantee Ease of Repair NA NA NA EOL Recovery Ease of dismantling Readily Recyclable Recycling/reuse instructions or service Results show that the home office chairs assessed had significant room for improvement in most environmental categories, and lacked the transparency necessary to fully determine the total environmental footprint. The home office chairs had mixed materials that were difficult to separate, lacked material identification to enable recycling, and were difficult to disassemble all of which would contribute to significant end-of-life impacts. Some of the materials used including polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Staples Sustainable Innovation Lab 6 Evaluation of greener design alternatives for office furniture at affordable price points SSIL13 005

7 plywood with unknown sources of wood and unknown levels of formaldehyde have significant potential impacts on the environment and on human health. Some design recommendations are summarized in Table 2 below. Table 2: Home Office Chair Design Recommendations 1 2 Criteria Material Impact Manufacturing Excellence and Transparency 3 Life Extension 4 End of Life Recovery Recommendation Free of Material Hazards Eliminate PVC typically found in chair upholstery (faux leather, PVC coated mesh). Consider more benign materials that can provide the same function such as polyurethane. Make sure that the plywood used for seat and back structure does not contain formaldehyde. Materials should not out-gas Preserve Natural Resources Assure that the plywood is sourced from socially responsible forests. Reduced Environmental Intensity Specify use of materials with post-consumer recycled content. Reporting / Third Party Certifications Evaluate supplier reporting and public declarations. Identify gaps. Much of the environmental impact of a product is in the supply chain, and information on supplier environmental releases, work practices, and process materials such as cutting fluids, cleaners, coatings, paints, and lubricants were not disclosed. Length of Guarantee Provide support to maximize useful life. Benchmark service life is 15 years. Foam cushioning fatigue is the major contributor limiting chair life and is the most significant customer complaint. Recommend evaluating foams with higher impact force deflection (IFD) ratings to extend the chair life. Ease of Repair Chair should be designed with standardized parts to enable simplified repair processes. o Casters, armrests, base, seat plate w/adjustment controls. Ease of Dismantling Make disassembly instructions publicly available. Enable materials to be separated to recycling levels using standard tools and with no special training in a reasonable amount of time. Readily Recyclable Do not join dissimilar materials. Avoid processes such as over-molding plastics onto metals. Parts should be labeled with material type to facilitate material segregation. Staples Sustainable Innovation Lab 7 Evaluation of greener design alternatives for office furniture at affordable price points SSIL13 005