6.30.06 | Holland, MI | Zody, Haworth’s task chair with revolutionaryasymmetrical lumbar support system and features previously available only inhigh-end chairs, has been awarded a 2006 Industrial Design Excellence Award(IDEA) and recognized in the International Design (I.D.) Magazine 2006 AnnualDesign Review.
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6.29.06 | More than 50 leading office furniture dealers agreed to establish a new dealer technology group during a meeting held at NeoCon. Solomon Coyle sponsored and organized the exploratory meeting to bring dealers affiliated with different manufacturers together to discuss common technology issues. The new group will evaluate the current state of dealer technology as dealers see it, identify “gaps” in the current offerings, and then communicate the needs and expectations of the dealer community to software providers.
6.28.06 | Washington, DC | The US Green Building Council (USGBC) may change its policy regarding wood in the LEED rating system, which is currently opposed by the timber industry, according to an article (“USGBC Seeks to Make LEED More Wood Friendly” by Jessica Boehland in Environmental Building News. Last fall, the USGBC’s Board of Directors asked EBN executive editor Alex Wilson to prepare a white paper with suggestions for resolving the problem. Mr. Wilson worked with a life-cycle assessment (LCA) expert, Greg Norris, Ph.D., of Sylvatica in North Berwick, ME, on the report. As of now, LEED offers “one point for the use of wood that is certified according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards and another point for the use of ‘rapidly renewable materials,’” according to the article. Non-FSC-certified wood can be used, but it does not contribute to LEED points.
Mr. Wilson and Dr. Norris’s report suggests expanding the “rapidly renewable materials” credit “to include all biobased materials, including wood, as long as the wood is known to come from legal sources,” Ms. Boehland writes. “The second change would expand the ‘certified wood’ credit to include non-wood biobased materials that meet the highest standards of environmental performance, including waste agricultural fibers. In effect, wood certified under the timber-industry-endorsed Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) would count toward the achievement of a point under the first credit, while FSC-certified wood would count toward two points (one under each credit).” The USGBC board has accepted the paper and referred the issue to its “LEED committees to develop a resolution with member and stakeholder participation,” Ms. Boehland concludes.
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