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The Latest News about Office Furniture and IAQ

Daisy — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:38:58 +0000

There are many factors that can contribute to poor indoor air quality (IAQ) in the workplace. Some of the most commonly recognized chemical contaminants are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released slowly into the air from materials in the office space. This week, Forbes published an article about a new study on a category of VOCs called polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs). These substances are known to cause health problems in animals and are suspected of having harmful effects on humans as well. The amount of exposure that might cause damage hasn’t been discovered. What scientists do know is that PFC exposure is cumulative since it takes years to metabolize the compounds and flush them from the body.

The Study

The actual study quoted in Forbes and other articles about toxins in the workplace was very small. The air quality in just 31 offices was tested over a period of one week and all were in a single city (Boston). In addition, only one worker from each office had their blood serum tested for the compounds being monitored. This leaves a lot of room for statistical variation. However, there were some initial findings that may lead to further study on a large scale.

1. Some chemical contaminants were found in lower concentrations than others due to various products being pulled from the market over the last couple of decades. There’s definitely a trend toward reducing VOCs, although many still remain to cause concern.

2. There was a correlation between newly renovated offices and higher levels of PFC-related chemicals in the blood serum samples. This isn’t surprising since most off-gassing of VOCs occurs in new building materials and office furniture. Harmful gases are frequently a byproduct that is released from coatings, stain repellents, adhesives, and paints.

What to Do

Forbes doesn’t offer any really helpful advice on how to limit exposure since individual employees have little control over the level of VOCs in the workplace. Instead, it’s up to business owners to ensure that office spaces are constructed and furnished with an eye toward preserving good IAQ. Using materials and products that meet GREENGUARD Certification Standards for Low-Emitting Products is one way to do this. Contacting an experienced LEED consultant to help you select the right office furniture can also be very helpful since IAQ is one major factor taken into consideration for LEED certification.

Cardboard, Now Newspaper, What’s Next?

Daisy — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:14:51 +0000

Back in December, I blogged about a cardboard desk. Today, we’re looking at furniture that’s made of even less expensive material – old newspapers. There are a couple of different designers playing with this reusable material. Yasmin Sethi combines the strength of layers with the strength of cylinders to make tables and chairs from rolled newspapers. Her Newspaper Furniture is simple to make and reportedly sturdy enough for actual use.

Another eco-friendly innovator, Mieke Meijer, is taking things one step further by turning old newspaper into pieces of faux lumber. The newspaper is compressed and bonded into blocks of solid material pulp. The ink between the layers creates an effect that actually looks like wood grain. The “logs” can be handled a lot like real wood as far as cutting, sanding, and finishing goes. Various artists are using this wood substitute for furniture ranging from desks and storage units to seating.

Edible Furniture – Something to Chew On

Daisy — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:48:06 +0000

There will always be those who make an art form out of even the most mundane objects. This touch of whimsy can make us look at everyday things in new ways. This week, let’s take a look at what happens when you mix food and furniture. You’ll probably be surprised to find that there’s a thriving subculture of sculptors who make edible furniture. Some of these are miniature designs while others are full sized replicas. You can see a collection of candy chairs at weblogtheworld.com. The smallest of these creations might grace the living room of a gingerbread house while the largest (the sugar chair) could carry the weight of a small child.

Think there’s no market for this stuff? You’d be wrong. You can actually order your own customized sugarchair made out of pure cane sugar here. Prices are available only upon request, so there’s no telling what this sweet seat would cost you.

Putting Bread In the Table

Spanish designer Enoc Armengo tried his hand at crafting a table and chair set out of bread. The art installation is called panpaati. This idea may seem half baked as far as utility is concerned. It’s unlikely that the furniture could bear much weight. But it is still useful in the sense that it is safe for human consumption (it might be delicious with a drizzle of pesto). So, you might not sit down at the table to eat, but you can sit down and eat the table!

Decadent Chocolate

Another high-carb offering in the world of edible art is the sofa cake. Art aficionados at the Let Them Eat Art exposition had the opportunity to taste a delectable chocolate lounge. From a distance, it looks like shiny leather upholstery, complete with covered buttons. But it’s really a giant sheet cake. This one is sure to help you work on your couch potato figure!

Does this furniture look good enough to eat? If you were making a chair out of food, what food would you choose and why? Let us know in the comments.

Furniture Upcycling in North Carolina

Daisy — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:52:53 +0000

Many office furniture companies, such as Herman Miller and Steelcase, have put stringent measures in place to reduce or reuse their own production waste. But not every furniture company does the same. This has provided an opportunity for designers to reclaim these unwanted byproducts for their own purposes. Adrian Boggs and Adam Gregory are using a mixture of discarded furniture and manufacturing remnants to create a unique collection they call “The Bottom Line”.

The artists/designers hope to start a conversation about how we define what’s useful and beautiful and enhance the upcycling trend for furniture. You can view some pieces at Boggs’ website here. The designs are sparse and minimalist with a focus on function. At the same time, the pieces have a certain elegance and definitely don’t look “trashy”.

NeoCon East – New Commercial Furniture Part 6

Daisy — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:41:51 +0000

It’s time to turn up the lights before we turn them out for good on this year’s NeoCon East blog series. What new lighting components were shining through at this Baltimore convention? Not surprisingly, LED lighting solutions lead the way in this category. Fluorescent lighting is so last century now! Here’s a spotlight on the featured lighting vendors for 2011.

Humanscale

The Element Vision made an appearance at NeoCon East after already being recognized as the winner of the New York House Magazine Innovative Green Design Awards. Not only does it use less energy than either an incandescent or fluorescent lamp, it also has extra features to conserve electricity. This task lighting has both a dimmer control and a passive infrared sensor to turn the lamp off when the desk is not in use (and back on when the user returns). Unlike regular motion sensors, the infrared detector only responds to a heat signature. It won’t be triggered by inanimate objects. The lamp itself is almost entirely recyclable and is made of 74% recycled content. As a final touch, most of the packing materials used to ship the lamp are also recycled.

Mighty Bright

The LUX Dome and Bar task lights offer LED lighting for workstations at a budget-friendly price point of less than $100. The Bar has a head that can rotate 90 degrees while the Dome can accomplish an impressive 360 degree swivel. While the Element Vision is aluminum, these Mighty Bright lamps have a solid steel body for even greater durability. The illumination provided is a bright 4000 Kelvin white light at 250 lumens. Unlike fluorescents, this glow is flicker free for a pleasant user experience.

ESI Ergonomic Solutions

The Solstice is a very new addition to the ESI line of LED task lighting. The lamp features a touch-sensitive dimmer so the output can be easily controlled with the brush of a finger. The base is multipurpose with a USB port for charging cell phones and other electronic office devices.

The Snake Charmer Strikes Back

Daisy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:31:54 +0000

Someone better call Samuel L. Jackson, because there are snakes in the…office? This unusual bit of office news comes from the Hindustan Times. A snake charmer apparently loosed a score of snakes into the local tax collector’s office (we’ve probably all wanted to do that at some point). The snakes were collected from on, around, and under the various pieces of office furniture by members of the forestry department. Fortunately, no one was bitten.

The snake charmer used his serpentine buddies to strike back at the revenue service officials who were allegedly delaying the provision of a government mandated allotment of land for snake conservation. The man accused tax office personnel of demanding a bribe before they would approve the allotment. After this stunt, it’s likely that the promised conservation land will be provided very soon. After all, snakes have to live somewhere. It’s better for them to be at a nice environmental retreat than in your desk drawer!

NeoCon East – New Commercial Furniture Part 4

Daisy — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:09:54 +0000

This week, it’s time to take a look at what NeoCon East participants found underfoot. There were a number of new commercial floor coverings on display – including a collection from Atlas Carpet Mills. The Archeologique line features modular carpet tiles with a velvet-cut pile surface. The pile is carved with what Atlas describes as a selection of 5 different “organic and linear loop textures” in 24 colors. These ancient glyphs bring a sophisticated touch to walkways while letting the eye wander over patterns that evoke ancient cities and unearthed ruins.

Companies War over Windfall from Foreign Furniture Duties

Daisy — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:09:36 +0000

Sometimes, the furniture business is as full of foreign intrigue as a good spy movie. There are backroom deals, squabbling over loot, and all sorts of shenanigans. For example, the Byrd Amendment (the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act) was put in place in 2000 to deter countries like China from dumping cheap goods onto the American market. Furniture was among the products affected by this anti-dumping Act. Although this legislation has now been repealed, there is still a tidy sum in collected duties waiting to be distributed.

Who gets the money? According to U.S. Court of International Trade, the funds are to be distributed to American furniture companies that were affected by dumping. The catch is that only companies that supported the anti-dumping petition in the first place are eligible to benefit. Now, furniture companies that did not support the Byrd Amendment are clamoring for a share of the spoils anyway. They claim that it is unfair to penalize them for not marching in lock-step with the government in instituting the CDSOA when it was first proposed.

You can read more about the decision at Furniture Today. What do you think would be fair in this situation? Let us know in the comments.

NeoCon East – New Commercial Furniture Part 3

Daisy — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:44:42 +0000

Next up on our tour of new items for the office is Peter Pepper Products, Inc. This firm introduced two lines of recycling receptacles for use in the workplace. The HexBin (as its name suggests) is intended for use in groups of 2 or more that fit together like pieces of a honeycomb. The bins can be used for paper, aluminum, glass, plastic, or trash depending on the lid and labeling you choose. There’s even a rain hood you can attach for outdoor locations. These bins come in sizes up to 37 gallons for use in large facilities.

The REMIX collection is a sleeker version of single and dual waste stream recycling bins. These oval bins are finished with a dent resistant aluminum composite in your choice of silver, bronze, white, or stainless. The semi-rigid bin liners are made of recycled billboards – a very hip and ironic way for Peter Pepper to advertise the sustainability of its products.

Vintage Office Etiquette

Daisy — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:06:50 +0000

This office etiquette video from the Encyclopaedia Britannica Films archive offers a delightful peek at what was expected from white collar workers in the 1950s. Some of the advice is still very relevant for today. After all, the Golden Rule doesn’t change. Going to work is much more pleasant when everyone treats others they way they want to be treated. Being considerate never goes out of style.

Of course, today’s employers tend to be a little more lax about some behaviors. For example, making an occasional personal phone call or spending a few minutes surfing the web is not considered problematic in many offices – as long as you get your work done. We’ve also got a very different attitude about work/life balance. For example, few of us would spend hours every night learning skills that should be acquired via company paid training during regular business hours. Plus, not that many people actually learn shorthand anymore!

Which ‘rules’ shown in this film do you still find relevant in today’s work environment? Let us know in the comments.