Custom classroom furniture: Extension activity

Important environmental and sustainability issues are directly addressed in this case study

"A couple of years ago we could see there was a strong international movement towards the concept of green buildings," says Pat. "So I joined the newly created New Zealand Green Buildings Council and two of us sat the exams and got qualified as accredited Green Buildings professionals."

Focus terminology

Green Building
Green Star Rating
Environmental Choice Certification

Green Building

Green Building is also known as green construction or sustainable building. It is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle – this covers the period from the original siting of the building through to the design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and eventual deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally. Other related topics include sustainable design and green architecture.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building

Green Star ratings

Green Star is a national voluntary environmental rating scheme that comprehensively evaluates the environmental attributes and performance of New Zealand's buildings. It does this using a suite of rating tools developed to be applicable to the range of building types and function.

Green Star was developed by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) in partnership with the building industry.

Green Star NZ rates whole buildings, rather than building components such as products and materials.

www.nzgbc.org.nz/main/greenstar

Activity

Three examples of New Zealand buildings which have recently attained Green Star ratings are:

80 Queen Street, Auckland
www.nzgbc.org.nz/documents/greenstarnz/casestudies/GSNZ/officev1/80_Queen_Street_Final.pdf

Ironbank Building, Auckland
www.nzgbc.org.nz/documents/greenstarnz/casestudies/GSNZ/officev1/IronbankCaseStudy2010.pdf

Civic Building, Christchurch
www.nzgbc.org.nz/main/resources/articles/ChristchurchCivicBuilding

Compare and contrast the relevant design and construction features which contributed to their Green Star ratings.

Environmental Choice (EC) certification

NZGBC does not test, review or certify products or materials – only buildings – third party certification bodies are relied upon for testing and environmental assessments of products and materials with relevance to Green Star NZ Materials category Credits.

Bodyfurn® classroom furniture has attained one of these third party certifications – the Environmental Choice New Zealand (ECNZ) product licence. Initiated and endorsed by the New Zealand Government, EC recognises the genuine moves made by manufacturers to reduce the environmental impacts of their products and provides a credible and independent guide for consumers who want to purchase products that are better for the environment.

In gaining this certification Bodyfurn products and components have been independently and scientifically verified as being from sustainable sources, recyclable, and manufactured in environmentally safe environments.

Reference: www.enviro-choice.org.nz/

Question

Why would Furnware, as a company, chose to work towards gaining EC certification for its classroom furniture products?

Furniture and fitting guidelines for EC certification

Furniture and fitting products can place a significant burden on the environment. The most important impacts on the environment are related to sourcing and producing the materials that are used to make furniture and fittings.

Sourcing of materials

A very wide range of materials is involved and these materials have different impacts on the environment and present different opportunities to differentiate products on the basis of environmental performance.

Materials used in furniture and fittings may be sourced from natural and renewable resources – for example, wood and natural fibres. Other materials are sourced from non-renewable resources – for example steel, aluminium and plastics from hydrocarbons.

Wood is commonly used. Harvesting of wood can have significant impacts on forest environmental values and communities. Sourcing wood from sustainably managed forests will help to protect these values. Encouraging reuse and recycling of non-renewal resources will help to reduce the impacts associated with mining and extracting these resources.

Processing of the materials used in furniture and fittings

This can involve using a wide range of hazardous substances including preservatives, pesticides, dyes, heavy metal additives, tanning agents, degreasing and cleaning agents, formaldehyde, solvents, adhesives and flame retardants. Many of these substances have been proved to be harmful to people and the environment and/or of contributing significantly to global warming. Discharges of these from processing operations can have adverse impacts both on the environment and on people.

Some of the hazardous substances used in manufacturing can become incorporated in the materials and can result in discharges from the finished furniture product. These can have adverse effects on human health during use, for example, from high levels of formaldehyde emissions to air in indoor environments from some wood panels and other products. Hazardous substances incorporated in products can also result in discharges and contaminants when products are disposed of – in landfills or by incineration.

Restricting the use of these hazardous substances will help to reduce the adverse impacts of furniture and fitting products on the environment. Surface coatings or treatments are applied to many of the materials used in furniture and fittings. These can be important to provide protection – from corrosion, heat or fire, for example – and help to prolong the useful life of the product. Surface coatings and treatments involve using hazardous substances and restrictions on these will also help to reduce the adverse impacts of these processes on the environment.

A significant potential environmental impact comes from using adhesives. Controls on adhesives used in manufacturing will help to reduce adverse impacts from furniture and fitting products. Because the most significant adverse impacts in the life cycle of furniture and fittings result from sourcing and producing the raw materials, encouraging features that ensure products are durable and have a long life, will help to reduce the overall burden of these products on the environment.

Encouraging features that allow for reuse and recycling will also prolong the effective life of the raw materials used in manufacturing. Requirements for product quality (including guarantees) and regarding ease of maintenance (in particular cleaning) and repair will help to prolong the life of the product. Requirements to encourage or enable recycling include those on ease of disassembly and labelling of plastic parts.

Reference: www.enviro-choice.org.nz/specifications/EC-32-09FurnitureandFittings.pdf

Question

Describe some of the strategies Furnware has implemented in to successfully address the above requirements for EC certification.