Is Your Office Chair Eco Friendly? How You Can Help The Environment

On the face of it office chairs don’t appear to be the most eco friendly products. This is certainly true of mass produced budget office seats where the manufacturer’s and supplier’s energy is spent working out how they can reduce costs.

They are much more concerned with getting products to fit a price bracket and more often than not this means cutting corners.

Such products tend to contain nasty foams, glues, PVC and chrome or involve processes known to be highly environmentally unfriendly and low cost and so attractive to them.

And yet there are a number of highly responsible manufacturers who go to great lengths to make their chairs as eco friendly as possible.

A good example is HÅG of Norway who takes the environment very seriously and always produces comprehensive data on the eco friendliness its products.

Take its Futu chair which only uses 7 different materials, not only that 33% come from recycled materials and the finished product is 97% recyclable.

The majority of its products are Greenguard and ISO 14025-EPD certified so you know that they are truly friendly as these certificates aren’t issued lightly, it must do what it says on the box.

Herman Miller is another manufacturer who takes the environment seriously, its Embody chair uses 42% recycled materials and is 95% recyclable and carries a Greenguard certificate.

Humanscale is yet another company whose products are highly eco friendly both its Freedom and Liberty chairs are Greenguard certified and are at least 90% recyclable.

Hopefully this is a trend which responsible manufacturers will continue to support and make our world a better place to live in.

How Can You Tell If A Chair Is Eco Friendly?

Make sure that supplier’s claims are backed up with proof, qualifying products will carry certificates like:

• Greenguard
• ISO 14025-EPD
• LEED CI

You are unlikely to find qualifying chairs in low cost entry level products and this sector of the market won’t change much unless forced to do so by legislation. The downside of becoming more environmentally aware is it costs more to do so, however by supporting such products you will be doing your bit to help planet earth.

And there is also another big benefit from doing so, you will find the majority of these chairs extremely comfortable and supportive in use and will give you many years of great service long after the initial outlay is forgotten.