A better indoor environment starts with material choices
Amsterdam, 21 April 2011 - Steelcase certifies 45 product ranges in Europe with the Indoor Advantage / Indoor Advantage Gold certification, a high level certificate for Indoor Air Quality, helping you create more healthy indoor environments.
The term "indoor air quality (IAQ)", interpreted broadly, refers to the environmental characteristics inside buildings that may affect human health, comfort, or work performance. Since most people spend as much as 90% of their time indoors – at home, work, or school, indoor air quality has become an important issue for architects, designers, purchasers and employers.
Poor indoor air quality is caused by a number of factors: inadequate ventilation and air circulation, poor cleaning, and excessive emissions of pollutants, one of them being volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from construction, printers and furnishing materials.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is responsible for public health and the environment, states that the indoor air can be up to ten times more polluted than the outdoor air.
European studies revealed that poor indoor quality might cause health problems like olfactory inconvenience, mucous membrane irritations, headaches, nauseas and in the long run even may contribute to increasing risks of cancers. This has frequently been referred to under the umbrella: sick building syndrome.
Steelcase conducted a research project in collaboration with Ipsos, in 2007, that shows statistics on some of these symptoms:
49% of all Dutch employees have tired eyes at least once a week
22% weekly experience headaches
24% indicate to suffer from a bad Indoor Air Quality
By selecting the right materials, Steelcase can minimize or prevent the emission of VOCs into the air and thus contribute to decrease the health issues related to indoor air quality. Globescan (2009) indicates that the safety and security of products is the number one concern of customers. “We see this trend in Business to Business as well”, continues Serena Borghero, Marketing and Sustainability Manager at Steelcase Benelux “Companies care more and more about the well being of their employees. This is a driver to motivate people and increase performance”.
In the absence of a true European indoor air quality certification scheme for office furniture, Steelcase decided to set an example to contribute to improve the indoor air quality and proactively show that this is an important issue.
Already applied to some Steelcase products in North America and Asia, the Indoor Advantage certification was developed by SCS (Scientific Certification Systems) to comply with the indoor air quality emission requirements defined by the ANSI/BIFMA M7.1-2007 standard. This certificate demonstrates that furniture or materials that have been certified as low-emitting by independent third parties support safe, healthy work environments for workers and product users. Indoor Advantage certified products also provide credits toward the LEED certification program.
Indeed, this program follows strict auditing protocols, accepts data only from pre-qualified laboratories, and has a proven track record in verifying manufacturer’s environmental claims.
At Steelcase our goal is to be knowledgeable enough to influence material choice during our design and development process in order to ensure we create the lowest-emitting products that meet critical industry standards and help create more healthy indoor environments.