EAST GREENVILLE, PA – Knoll Inc. recently announced that the company's Dividends Horizon® office system—furniture for the open plan workplace, meeting areas and enclosed offices—has been awarded level™ 3 certification from Scientific Certification Systems (SCS).
Dividends Horizon is the industry's first office systems product to receive level 3—the highest award that a product can achieve under the BIFMA furniture sustainability standard. BIFMA, the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association, develops voluntary product and industry standards that support safe, healthy and sustainable workplace environments. Scientific Certification Systems was the first to certify products to the level program and is known for its integrity and scientific rigor.
In the BIFMA level certification process, a product, the organization and facilities that produced it are scored according to sustainability criteria in four areas: Materials; Energy and Atmosphere; Human and Ecosystem Health; and Social Responsibility.
"Knoll is taking leadership steps toward sustainability," says Stowe Hartridge-Beam, level program manager at Scientific Certification Systems. "Knoll's level 3 certification reflects their achievements in waste and greenhouse gas emissions reduction, human and ecosystem health, and social responsibility."
"Level certification complements our long-standing commitment to third-party programs that provide independent verification of environmental standards. The BIFMA sustainability program reinforces our leadership efforts to pioneer clean manufacturing policies that protect the biosphere and conserve natural resources," says Lou Newett, Knoll’s health and safety manager, who leads the company's environmental sustainability efforts.
Knoll focuses on three key environmental areas: climate change, third-party certification and environmentally-friendly products and manufacturing processes. The company has also certified products under the SMaRT© Consensus Sustainable Product Standard, achieving SMaRT certification for Generation by Knoll (Platinum); Chadwick (Gold); Calibre (Gold); Moment (Gold); and Template (Gold). In addition, Knoll recently established FSC®- (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood as the standard for general open plan office systems, casegoods and tables, recognizing that sustainable wood harvesting can contribute to reversing environmental and social trends. (FSC is the international standard setting body for defining and measuring a well managed forest and providing traceability through chain-of-custody certification.)
Knoll operates eight LEED®-certified showrooms in North America, including its Platinum-certified facility in Toronto. The Knoll East Greenville, PA Lubin manufacturing facility is LEED Gold-certified under the Existing Building pilot program; it is also an OSHA VPP Star site.
Dividends Horizon offers continuity between workplace furniture and interior architecture, offering planning opportunities to optimize users' relationships to their work areas and those around them. Designed by Jeffrey Bernett and Nicholas Dodziuk with David Noel, Dividends Horizon embraces organizational change, moving the workplace forward both practically and aesthetically while creating a sense of community and organized space.