Some materials provide a better alternative in an application dominated by products for which there are concerns about toxic constituents, intermediaries, or by-products. With the panoply of products made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants, some products are green simply because they provide an alternative. Examples of this are natural wall coverings, drain and vent piping, and roofing membranes. Some green products are free of hazards common to the product category; for example, LED lighting is inherently free of the mercury found in fluorescent lighting sources.
However, it’s worth noting that without transparency about actual ingredients, there’s no guarantee that a product won’t have less common or less well-known hazards that the manufacturer isn’t talking about. We use Pharos’s Chemical and Material Library to assess less well-known hazards, and we encourage manufacturers to review the hazardous properties of all chemicals they use and seek out safer materials.
Stride Workstations
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Third-party forest certification based on standards developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the best way to ensure that wood products come from well-managed forests. Wood products must go through a chain-of-custody certification process to carry an FSC stamp.
Manufactured wood products can meet the FSC certification requirements with less than 100% certified wood content through percentage-based claims (30% certified content is required if only virgin wood fiber is used; certified-wood content as low as 17.5% is allowable if the rest of the fiber content is from recycled sources).
With a few special-case exceptions, FSC-based certification is a requirement for GreenSpec inclusion of any nonsalvaged solid-wood product and most other wood products. A few manufactured wood products, including engineered lumber and particleboard/MDF, can be included if they have other environmental advantages--such as absence of formaldehyde binders. Engineered wood products in GreenSpec do not qualify by virtue of their resource efficiency benefits alone (for more on this, see EBN, Vol. 8, No. 11). -
Just how low the VOC level needs to be for a given product to qualify for inclusion in GreenSpec depends on the product category. For most products, we require certification to California’s health-based emissions standard, CDPH Std Method v1.1 standard (also referred to as California Section 01350), which tests a product’s resultant VOC concentrations in the space after a given period of time. For wet-applied products like paints, caulks, and adhesives, we still also look for VOC content instead of, or in addition to, verified low emissions; this is because emissions testing doesn’t adequately test initial offgassing, and VOC content is currently the only widely available proxy.
Allsteel's Stride office system can be reconfigured into a variety of workstations depending on office needs. Stride is SCS Indoor Advantage Gold and BIFMA Level 3 certified, and it contains 30% pre-consumer and 16% post-consumer recycled content. FSC wood is available for worksurfaces, panel trim, and storage fronts.
As with all furniture products, make sure that office furniture doesn’t introduce harmful emissions into the space. Also look for lower-impact materials and manufacturing processes.
Office Furniture must meet the same high bar that GreenSpec has established for all furniture products: products must be low-emitting and exhibit multiple other environmental features, such as being made primarily from greener materials.
The greenest product is often one that has already served one useful life. Where feasible, reusing or refurbishing existing furniture or selling it for reuse can save both financial and environmental resources. Sources for office furniture that is remanufactured or refurbished exist in most major cities. Salvaged products frequently don't have low-emitting certifications—check the certifications to be sure.
You’ll probably be choosing cabinets and other casework based on aesthetics, durability, fit, and cost.
In addition to those considerations, make sure that casework doesn’t introduce harmful emissions into the space. Also look for lower-impact materials and manufacturing processes.
Casework must meet the same high bar that GreenSpec has established for furniture products: products must be low-emitting and exhibit multiple other environmental features, such as being made primarily from greener materials, ideally verified by certifications such as BIFMA’s level.
For specialty casework where certifications like BIFMA’s level may be less available, pay special attention to the materials used—and ensure that corresponding environmental and health issues have been addressed.
Metal cabinets, which typically have low emissions, may be a good choice for those with chemical sensitivities. However, because of the life-cycle costs associated with mining and production, we don’t generally consider metal cabinets a more environmentally preferable option.
As with all furniture products, make sure that systems furniture doesn’t introduce harmful emissions into the space. Look for lower-impact materials and manufacturing processes.
Systems furniture must meet the same high bar that GreenSpec has established for all furniture products: products must be low-emitting and exhibit multiple other environmental features, such as being made primarily from greener materials.
Modular, flexible, integrated interior architecture for office partitions and cubicles that incorporate such features as access flooring, walls, wiring and cabling, and lighting, can decrease building and remodeling time significantly.
Certifications
LEED Credits
IEQc4.5: Low-Emitting Materials—Systems Furniture and Seating
IEQc4.5: Low-Emitting Materials—Furniture and Furnishings
MRc6: Certified Wood
MRc7: Certified Wood
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