Q&A. Tell Greenpeace Where To Park It!
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 09. 8.05
Here’s a little conundrum. How does a not-for-profit environmental advocacy organisation ‘walk its talk’ when, as always, money is tight. Maybe Treehugger readers have some suggestions. Because Greenpeace Australia are on the seek. Amber writes: So as I mentioned, I'm researching new office chair options. Just to see what is out there, I reckon all will be too exy [expensive] for us, and we'll have to continue with the 2nd hand option. We just seem to have had a bad run of 2nd hand chairs lately. Below is the list of sources of sustainable chairs that I know of, have you heard of anyone else?. Amber’s list (see below) reads like it could be a Treehugger Top Five of office chairs.
Schamburg and Alvisse,
Herman Miller,
Wharington International,
Wilkhahn, who, to our shame we’ve yet to have on TH. It's their Picto above.
Schiavello
We’ll start the ball rolling with Formway of New Zealand, whose Life Chair contains 65% recycled materials and is 90% recyclable.
Or from that other land of fjords comes Norway's ergonomic Capisco by Hag, which has its seat formed with recycled plastic car bumper bars and ketchup bottles. Apparently they rescue 200 tons of plastic from landfill each year.
What other worthy contenders are you aware of? (And the Aeron doesn't count, OK, because GP already know about Herman Miller.)
My favorite office chair of all time was in a design firm where I worked. We had regular "office chairs", but most of us preferred to sit on short stepladders instead. It kept us from getting glued to our computers, and forced us to move around more often. I found that I was more productive this way than a comfortable chair that encouraged me to stay at my desk, and the stepladders encouraged an upright posture because there was no backrest.
There are a number of companies in sydney which specialise in re-using office furniture- usually good quality- and a lot cheaper than new.
Our company is committed to re-using almost everything from workstation screens, tops, to even the screws & fittings.
We know a manufacturer who sells good quality second hand chairs
Herman Miller has two new chairs, the Mirra and the Celle.
The newest, the Celle, is 99% recyclable, disassembles for recycling in less than 5 minutes, 33 percent recycled content, greenguard certified in packaging which is all reusable or recyclable. and is manufacturered using Green alternative energy. Lastly, the pricing gets the chair into the low-middle price range.
http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Product/0,1592,a10-c440-p217,00.html