Certification Corner

Certification Corner is a place for otto readers to find manufacturer and firm announced certifications on products, projects, as well as new information on industry certifications.

In this edition: Herman Miller, Office Depot, Coalesse, Designtex and Teknion.

*Herman Miller’s local fleet has been recognized as a US EPA SmartWay Transport Partnership certified carrier. This is an industry first and acknowledges the efforts of its West Michigan fleet operations to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions.

The SmartWay Transport Partnership is a collaboration between the US EPA and the freight industry to provide strong market-based incentives that challenge companies to improve the environmental performance of their freight operations. It predicts that by 2012 ground freight transportation will consume over 45 billion gallons of diesel fuel and produce over 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

*Office Depot was pre-certified at the LEED Gold level for its prototype new store construction. Office Depot was one of the first 14 companies, and the only office products firm, to enlist in the LEED Portfolio Program pilot for pre-certification.

*Steelcase brands, Coalesse and Designtex were awarded LEED Gold Certification for their Chicago showrooms. The areas of focus that lead to LEED certification include sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. With the goal of achieving LEED certification, the project team that created the space was involved early in the “greening” process. The team understood the possibility of lowering long-term operating costs by using efficient infrastructure materials including electrical and plumbing. Creating an environment that maximized exposure to natural light, cleaner air, and low gas-emitting chemicals was also important to the group.

*Teknion announced that its 50th employee successfully attained LEED Accredited Professional certification. The company has more than doubled its number of LEED accredited professionals in the past year with the help of sponsored training sessions in its showrooms in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.