Is Your Furniture Socially Correct?

If it's a Herman Miller product it is. Just today, Herman Miller of Zeeland, Michigan, received the stamp of approval from NSF International, an independent organization that certifies products standards. Herman Miller's furniture earned Level certification, a new sustainability-focused standard for commercial furniture.

The conformance mark ensures a comprehensive, independent and impartial assessment of the environmental and social impacts of a product's manufacture.

Level was developed in cooperation with the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association. Once a company satisfies the initial prerequisites, additional credits are granted based on compliance to various criteria in four key areas: materials, energy and atmosphere, human and ecosystem health and social responsibility.

And the system is complex with three different levels of certification that can be applied to specific products.

This new program is part of an overall environmental strategy at Herman Miller that includes:

*Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) verification
*79% environmental footprint reduction
*91% hazardous waste reduction since 1994
*Goal of eliminating all solid, hazardous, air and water waste by 2020
*Becoming 100% green energy reliant by the year 2020.