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Herman Miller Launches Aggressive Environmental Design Initiative
According to Herman Miller, antimony oxide, used as a catalyst in bottle-grade polyester production, is a potential health hazard to humans
Doug Smock, Contributing Editor -- Design News, September 30, 2008
Herman Miller, the office furniture manufacturer, is pushing major soft drink producers such as Coke and Pepsi to remove antimony oxides from their plastic bottles as part of a major green design initiative.
Antimony oxide, which is used as a catalyst in the production of bottle-grade polyester, is a potential health hazard to humans, says Scott Charon, new product business development manager of Herman Miller, which is putting a strong emphasis on recycle content such as bottle waste in its office furniture designs. The Celle, for example, has 33 percent recycle content and the Teneo, due out later this year, will have a recycle content of 24 to 42 percent.
Antimony oxide is part of what Charon calls Herman Miller's "X" list of materials that are avoided in new furniture design. Concern about antimony oxides comes from a report issued in 2006 by the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry at the University of Heidelberg in Germany concluding there is "unambiguous evidence" that antimony trioxide leaches from polyester water bottles. "Comparison of three German brands of water available in both glass bottles and PET containers showed that waters bottled in PET contained up to 30 times more Sb (antimony)," the report states.
There is no debate that antimony can be an irritant in humans. It's listed as a priority pollutant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union. There is debate about the extent of its role as a carcinogen. Charon told Design News in an interview that Herman Miller is relying on a chemical consulting company called McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in its exploration of potentially harmful chemicals.
"We're also concerned about fluorinated chemicals and we're moving away from halogenated compounds," Charon said in a sustainability conference session during National Manufacturing Week in Rosemont, IL. PVC is also being designed out.
"We are designing products very differently now and designing a product until the end of its life," Charon says. Herman Miller is using a cradle-to-cradle design approach espoused by McDounough Baumgart in which the company takes responsibility for its products for their complete life.
Complete analysis of chemistries of all materials used is one approach. Another is design for disassembly. Herman Miller is avoiding use of adhesives assembly and processes such as sonic welding that make disassembly more difficult. It should be possible, says Charon, for a worker to disassemble a Herman Miller product in less than 30 sec with a common tool. Materials must also be clearly identified to facilitate recycling.
The catch, of course, is how much this will actually take place because of high costs and lack of recycling infrastructure in the U.S. Herman Miller is exploring a pilot program in which federal prison inmates would be enlisted to test disassembly. The third area is use of recycled content, where the old soft drink bottles become an issue.
"We use a simple spreadsheet to score all of our products three times during the launch process: the early stages, middle stage and then when we launch a product," says Charon. Those scores plus issues such as costs and supply chain factors are all taken into consideration.
One other goal is use of biobased materials. Herman Miller has developed Kira fibers for use in wall coverings that contain polylactic acid, a corn-derived polymer developed by Cargill. The material quickly degrades when composted, says Charon.
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Cradle to Cradle on the surface sounds fine. But what is the environmental impact of the alternatives? What would it take to ship all this heavy office furniture to prison sites, disassemble it, a ship it to someone who can use the materials. What does it take to recycle the materials? How much energy to melt steel and aluminum? Grind wood compsites? Melt down screws and clips? Sonic welding bad? It uses little energy, requires no metal fasteners and bonds only like materials. How likely is composting a plastic partition? How many stupid mercury bulbs will actually go to a recycling center and how do they get there?
S Kolman - 2008-2-10 04:15:08 EDT -
"30 times more [antimony]"...that's an inconclusive comment! Just exactly how much is there, total? That's what's important. Have you ever noted the lead in your instant coffee? Well, it's there! Detectable or even measurable quantities are not necessarily relevent quantities.
John Hauber - 2008-1-10 05:33:57 EDT
