Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs
1.0
Overview
Chairs are a somewhat utilitarian piece of equipment designed (hopefully) to satisfy
specific ergonomic demands. Apart from these functional requirements, chairs are a
large volume consumer product that are traditionally constructed from a variety of
virgin plastics, metals, timbers, foams and fabrics that are glued, stapled and insertmoulded together, such that meaningful recycling is extremely difficult or inefficient.
The foams, fabrics and glues that are used in chair construction are generally high in
VOC emissions and are not recyclable due to the techniques and materials selected.
When metals are used they are usually painted or powder-coated, also making them
less efficient to recycle. Furthermore, the engineering of the frames, seat and back
pads, arms, and even bases, often leaves a lot to be desired with components failing
very early into their supposed life-cycle.
Another design issue is the fixing of upholstery, which is usually achieved with staples
and glues, meaning they cannot be maintained or replaced when these fixing methods
fail (as they often do). The upholstery fabrics and leathers currently used are
sometimes dyed with highly toxic compounds including chromium, cadmium, and
cobalt. Often these are then coated with formaldehyde dressings, high VOC chemical
anti-dirt treatments, and even carcinogenic fire resistant compounds.
The mechanical components are typically not constructed to be maintainable, unless
the chair is of reasonable quality. However, even if the chair has maintainable
components the manufacturers often don’t offer maintenance services. Hence, the
chairs will often end up in landfill when all they need is simple maintenance or
component replacement.
Many of the components that make up chairs are capable of being manufactured with
recycled or partially recycled raw materials. Using recycled content components will
reduce the overall embodied energy and resource intensity of the chair. It also enables
an ongoing cyclic resource use if designed and specified carefully by the chair designer
and manufactured to be able to be disassembled, i.e. Design for Disassembly (DfD).
To enable the materials to be re-used, DfD requires component materials be
individually identified and dated on each component. Even with DfD and
maintainability, chairs and their components will be less likely to end up in landfill if
manufacturers offer to provide Product Takeback schemes. In Germany,
manufacturers are required to dispose of their own products at life-end (Extended
Producer Responsibility or EPR), so DfD and resource recovery evolves naturally.
Resource recovery is prevented when materials are glued or laminated together.
Typically, chair arms and some back components will be plastic, such as polyurethane
inset moulded with steel sub-frames, preventing either from being recycled.
When looked at comparatively to other internal products, the vast majority of chairs in
the marketplace contribute to high environmental and indoor air quality toxicity and
exhibit poor consideration of resource use and recovery. Fortunately, there are
exceptions, with two of the three chairs presented in this Eco Priority Guide being
leading examples of chairs with good to excellent eco credentials.
The success of these chairs (e.g. the Mirra and Life chair) has unfortunately spawned a
generation of look-alike products that do not emulate the same depth of consideration
to ecological, health and resource conservation issues.
Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs © Ecospecifier 2007
Page 1 of 6
2.0
Eco Priorities - Office Chairs
The major general eco-priorities for chairs across the category are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Resource efficiency
Life-cycle issues - Durability and Maintenance
GHG Emissions
Human Health Impacts
Toxicity to Air, Land and Water
Table 1 shows the potential positive and negative impacts associated with each chair
example in relation to the eco priorities listed above.
Priority Order
Herman
Miller
‘Mirra’
Formway
-Knoll
‘Life’
Gregory
‘Pluto
Klein
‘Alpha’
1
2
Resources+
Resources+
Resources
Resources
Toxics, Health+
Toxics, Health
Toxics, Health
3
4
GHG+
Toxics,
Health+
GHG+
GHG
Life-cycle
Life-cycle+
Life-cycle+
Life-cycle
GHG
Issues of concern?
No
No
No
Yes
Key:
+
Denotes issue more favourable outcomes
Table 1: Eco priorities as they relate to specific chair examples
Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs © Ecospecifier 2007
Page 2 of 6
3.0
Individual Chair Comparisons
Quick Guide –
Herman Miller – ‘Mirra’
For:

DfD- Designed for Disassembly

Elimination of inset moulded
plastic/steel components

42% recycled content (31% postconsumer), 96% recyclable

GreenGuard™Certified, low VOC

PVC free

Predominantly steel constructionlow embodied energy

Elastomeric seat suspension and
moulded polymer, or fabric back
choices used instead of foam and
fabric – healthy, recyclable and
maintainable

McDonough Braungart Design
Chemistry Protocols and ‘Cradle to
Cradle’™ ecolabel ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’
certified – reduced toxics

Carbon intensity reduced via
renewable energy credits to 100%
offset energy required for chair
manufacture process

Take back available

Designed for maintenance repair and
refurbishment

12 year single shift warranty- (multishift on application)

Manufactured in LEED Platinum
Building

High quality environmental info
Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs © Ecospecifier 2007
$ 1169.00
Against:

Powder coated steel reduces
efficiency of steel recycling slightly

Powder coating can be damaged
and may reduce life cycle due to
aesthetic considerations
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3.0
Individual Chair Comparisons (cont’d)
Formway/Knoll- ‘Life’ For:

DfD Designed for maintenance repair
and refurbishment

GREENGUARD™ certification, lowemitting interior products and
materials

Limited adhesive use removal
fasteners employed

PVC free

Water-blown polyurethane foam
reduced to 3% of total chair

62%recycled material content

Aluminium 100% recycled content

No Powder coatings or paint used

Simpler design 18% fewer
components than competitors

23-65% lighter than competitors

Finite element analysis used to
ensure structural design adequate

Designed for total disassembly and
recovery of components including
tagged plastics

Main materials all recyclable –
aluminium steel, nylon
polypropylene

10 Year multi-shift warranty

High quality environmental info
Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs © Ecospecifier 2007
Plastic base $750.00
Alumin base $840.00
Against:

Back spring tension not adjustable
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3.0
Individual Chair Comparisons (cont’d)
Gregory Chairs ‘Pluto’
Nylon base
Alumin base
For:

polypropylene bases contain up
to 40% recycled materials from
old bases reground and
recycled

all steel and aluminium
components are 100% recycled
content

CFC free, zero free isocyanate
polyurethane foams

pure wool fabric or nonchromium tanned leathers

old shell ply is chipped for
mulch

single poly bag packing is reused or recycled

aluminium base option

takeback scheme offered

wool fabric renewable source

5 year single shift warranty

ISO 14001 certified
$
$
Against:

large amounts of polyurethane foam in
seat cushion, indoor air quality
impacts over time and fire danger
from cyanide by-products of
combustion

insert-moulded steel and
polypropylene components reduce
overall recyclability of major
components such as back and arms

high foam content means high
embodied energy

nylon base option more susceptible to
failure over time

environmental degradation and toxic
emissions from wool growth,
processing and dying and water
resource issues from scouring

good quality environmental
information not readily available on
website
Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs © Ecospecifier 2007
Page 5 of 6
3.0
Individual Chair Comparisons (cont’d)
Klein ‘Panther’
For:

recyclable polypropylene base

ISO 14401 certification

3 year warranty
Polypropylene Base: $555
Against:

insert-moulded steel and foam
components reduce overall
recyclability of major components such
as back and arms

conventionally tanned leathers

large volumes of polyurethane foam in
seat, back, head support - indoor air
quality impacts over time and fire
danger from cyanide by-products of
combustion

Not DfD, high reliance on high VOC
glue construction to adhere plywood,
foams, steel and polyurethane shell
minimises ability to repair, maintain
and deconstruct

overall high VOC

overall low recyclability

environment policy on website has no
apparent substance

no environmental information on
website or by request.
(03) 9682 8280
Internet Resources
www.hermanmiller.com www.formway.com www.gregoryaustralia.com.au www.klein.com.au
Eco Priority Guide: Office Chairs © Ecospecifier 2007
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