Sustainable design at Formway Furniture

Formway Furniture represents an important example of how corporate commitment, strategic planning and phased practical implementation can deliver sustainable design solutions in the office furniture sector.

The Wellington-based company – which exports to the world – has been proactively evolving its sustainable design methods for several years and has recently begun a more comprehensive sustainability programme.

Formway has come a long way since its modest beginnings as an engineering company making steel furniture for the New Zealand market in the 1950s. Today, it is an international company with over 200 employees, showrooms in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne, and manufacturing plants in both New Zealand and Australia.

All production of goods has an environmental impact and office furniture is no exception. The production process is materials intensive drawing on both natural and synthetic resources from wood-based products and metals through to plastics and textiles. Through the smarter and more responsible specification of all material types, Formway is striving to cut emissions, reduce solid wastes as well as eliminate and/or significantly minimise the presence of potentially hazardous substances in products and processes.

At Formway environmental performance and sustainability are important issues from the top down:

“At Formway we continually look for ways we fulfil our mission to be a leading company in environmental performance. Formway is a design-led company and we firmly believe that excellent design and making sustainable decisions go hand in hand.”
Alan Buckner – CEO, Formway

In particular, the company has a reputation for innovative, people focused, elegant design solutions. For more than 10 years Formway has enjoyed strong growth in both products and distribution. This has included significant expansion into Australia, vertical development of its distribution channels and entry into new markets through the design and launch of ranges of work stations, high performance seating, and soft seating and storage products.

A five-pronged approach

Formway’s environmental strategy is being implemented in five environmental management programmes:

Product Design – Eco Innovation. Formway design teams are constantly searching for new materials and technologies to ensure future products are at the leading edge of commercial environmental product design.
Supply Chain Management. Formway recognises that its suppliers’ efforts are vital to deliver a sustainable production system, accordingly supplier environmental requirements and continuous improvement actions are part of routine supplier dialogue.
Operations – Environmental Management Systems. Formway has joined the Landcare Research EnviroSmart scheme to achieve EnviroMark certification for its EMS system.
Product Stewardship – End-of-life focus. Formway’s first priority is to ensure its furniture is designed to give many years of service without being made redundant through obsolescence or fashion change. However, work is also ongoing to develop a robust and practical end-of-life management approach that maximises environmental and economic value.
Stakeholder Communications. Sustainability communications are undertaken both within the company and with all other environmental stakeholders, particularly architects and designers.

Formway has employed Jake McLaren, a former UK EcoDesign specialist, to develop and implement the new programme.

“The first necessity for making ‘green’ products a commercial reality is a real desire and enthusiasm from the management level to make products and services more sustainable. Marketers, designers and engineers need to be encouraged to look for opportunities that add value to a company and benefit the environment simultaneously.”
Jake McLaren - Environmental Manager, Formway

The programme includes a range of associated measures and services such as:

evidence for GreenStar tool rating for specific Formway products
product eco-declarations and third party environmental product certifications
peer review of Life Cycle Assessment studies completed by a sponsored PhD studentship
product stewardship services available on request for interested clients and projects.

“Our environmental management programmes are owned and implemented by teams in design, production, supply chain management and end-of-life. Collectively these people share their environmental learning, develop new tools, techniques and best practice.”
Keith Hilligan - Chief Financial Officer, Formway

The environmental improvements Formway has made across its major product ranges are mostly available at standard cost not ‘optioned-up’ premium cost add-ons. For example, in Australia, it uses MDF board rated EO for reduced formaldehyde content and sourced from certified sustainable forests in Victoria. This is now the standard material for all Formway workstations in Australia.

The Life Chair – exemplary and influential

The Life Chair is one of Formway’s most influential and commercially successful products in recent years. Formway personnel collaborated with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Product Ecology to develop a detailed EcoDesign brief which aimed to eliminate and/or minimise a range of life-cycle environmental impacts. Specific design considerations covered areas such as:

environmentally oriented materials selection
design to facilitate cleaner production
design for durability and extended product life
design for reupholstery, refurbishment and reuse
design for disassembly and recycling.

The following summary outlines several key Design for Sustainability outcomes related to the Life Chair.

the Life Chair is designed for reupholstery – the seat and back sub-assemblies and upholstery toppers can both be easily removed and replaced
the chair contains 30 percent recycled content (combined post-consumer and post-industrial) and is over 90 percent recyclable
user instructions are integrated into the chair’s physical design ie, under the seat
the Life Chair is approximately 23 percent and 65 percent lighter than its two main competitors, reflecting advanced material efficiencies and high strength to weight ratios
it has approximately 18 percent fewer components than its primary competitor
materials-efficient ‘3D knit-back suspension fabric’ eliminates the need for a ‘materials-intensive’ upholstered foam back or solid plastic frame
most of the chair’s adhesives have been replaced with snap fits, hinge pins or spring clips
plastic parts have in-mould labels to help quickly identify material types and enable easier/faster sorting, separation and recycling. No PVC is specified
the Life Chair is Greenguard certified to verify low off-gassing during use.

Getting the balance right

The ongoing and future challenge for Formway as it bolsters its sustainability programme is to get the balance right between qualitative and quantitative aims, objectives and outcomes. In other words, the need to create products and services that are ecologically responsible, economically necessary, socially desirable and culturally acceptable. Getting such a balance right is what makes a company and its products ‘sustainable’ as opposed to merely ‘environmentally-improved ’.

“Our designers are always looking for ways to make environmental product breakthroughs, for example really exciting progress is being made in the development of biopolymers. These materials are getting close to the stage of replacing petrochemical polymers in high performance applications.”
Bob Stewart – Design Manager, Formway

The journey for Formway is likely to become more interesting and positive over the next few years as major external pressures and drivers demand much higher levels of environmental performance from the commercial furniture sector. Formway sees ahead several specific opportunities that will help focus further attention on sustainable design and ‘greener’ furniture over the next five years, for example the development of the New Zealand Building Council GreenStar Interiors tool and publication of the Environmental Choice New Zealand ecolabel for furniture. Formway has experience working with Australian clients and the existing Australian GreenStar tool, and looks forward to the development of similar tools in New Zealand to assist the local architecture and design community.

There is little doubt that opportunities will continue to emerge, and Formway will continue to use them as a catalyst for innovation and good design, now and into the near future:

“Everything we do at Formway has an environmental consideration, from product design and right through the supply chain. Creating a sustainable future is a key component of our design philosophy and company values.”
Alan Buckner – CEO, Formway

Formway is grateful for the support of the Foundation for Research Science and Technology, in assisting with the development of the Formway environmental programme.