Sustainable Products

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) can be found in hundreds of products including many in the building construction, furnishings and electronics industries and certainly in many pieces of office furniture — worksurfaces, casegoods, electrical components, grommets, bumpers, spacers.

It could well be the most pervasive synthetic material in the world today. More recently, however, it's become a global environmental focus. A growing body of scientific evidence points to potential long-term human and environmental health impacts of PVC during manufacturing and disposal.

In 2006, Steelcase voluntarily committed to the goal of eliminating PVC from our products as part of a larger commitment to identify and eliminate substances that can threaten human and environmental health. Beginning in summer 2009, we began phasing out PVC worksurface edge bands and replacing them with a PVC-free alternative.

When Jeff dove into the edge banding project, the company's effort to deliver on its commitment to become PVC-free was well underway. But that doesn't mean it's easy to do. Often, making progress means picking up the work of others and taking it to the next level, caring enough not to give up or settle for "good enough."

"At first, I didn't fully understand the scope. My head was wrapped around eliminating PVC edge bands on worksurfaces, but I soon learned the pervasiveness of PVC. The impact is virtually every workstation, every conference room and every collaborative space where we provide products. Its reach is broad."

As a result of team effort, Steelcase is now shipping PVC-free edge banding as standard on 12 product lines, using a proprietary polyolefin blend material to replace PVC. This material has been approved by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) for use in Cradle to CradleCM silver certified products. Steelcase now leads the industry with PVC-free offerings in North America and Europe.

"PVC may seem like just a small detail that's easy to change, but in reality it requires an extensive product development effort."

Months of careful color-matching and extensive durability testing ensured that the new material would meet exacting standards and be equal to or better than the PVC edging it replaced. Then, machinery in two factories separated by thousands of miles was standardized to the new material and processes. Oh, and by the way, the improvement had to be price-neutral for customers.

"In working on the PVC project, I've really come to understand my impact goes way beyond what I do for sustainability at home as one person. From an organizational perspective, what we do isn't just one small piece of a puzzle. Because of our scope, the scale of our supply chain and the volume of products we produce, it makes us a big piece of the puzzle. It feels good to know we're doing the right thing." ■