Shopping for Eco-RTA furniture at the OSS channel has turned out to be frustrating, to say the least, but surprisingly so has shopping for a simple eco-friendly pen, pencil and highlighter! What is the deal with the office superstores - are they giving up to Wal-Mart without a fight? I did find two bright "green" spots out there, but not without a lot of digging and without any useful help from the sales floor. Although I would like to say that the salespeople at Staples and Office Depot fell over themselves trying to find anything they could that was eco-friendly for me, even after their managers laughed at them for even thinking that the store would carry such things. Office Max, cut back on useless overhead, they just stood around chatting with each other and didn't even bother to greet me or anyone else in the furniture department. I had to help some guy figure out that the hutch was not really attached on a Z-Line desk or he was ready to walk out and find another product. I think I deserve a commission to cover my gas.
Anyway, remember the on-line/catalog ranking from my previous posting - first Staples (thanks to the Eco-Easy icon), then Office Depot for having two Green products (Global's Genoa & OD's Quantum Realspace), then Office Max for having nothing. Well, things fell dramatically different after the in-store visits...
1) Office Max - that's right, even with the sub par sales help and the lack of information on the website or catalog, if you actually made it in to the store you would find seven chairs with "Green" tags on them. Seven!! The fact the "Green" is even in quotes on their own tags worried me a little, but I did a little digging and it is not too bad. The seven chairs are all made by True Seating under the EZ and Serta brands. The tags claim that they are made from, "Earth-Conscious 'Green' Foam from other sources that would end up in landfill. Reduces Scrap waste. Limits the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Decreases the use of natural resources." Really bad wording (or translation) on the first part, but it basically sounds like recycled foam technology. There is no claim as to how much of the foam is from post-consumer or from post-industrial waste, so I have put an inquiry into both True Seating and Office Max and will post any response in the comments section of this posting. I won't hold my breath for 100%, or I am sure they would have put it on the tag already but it is a start at reducing some of those nasty chemicals.
There are many companies out there that recycle foam in the contract industry already - nice to see it done here at the retail level. I am surprised more seating manufacturers aren't doing it already. It has proven to be a really cost-effective internal scrap-reclaim program with a great ROI (usually a year or less) and as you can see - it's something you can market too!
As for the rest of the chair design - not one green thing about any of the seven that I could find mentioned on the tags or assembly instructions. It was too much to hope for an entire eco-friendly product. But Office Max, I apologize for saying that you were not worth my gas before. I am glad that I stopped by and saw that you are making some progress, and for that you rank above your competitors. Now if you would only get rid of the same old furniture I have been seeing year in and year out for some great new green products - totally green products - and you might have a new fan base, influencing women.
2) Office Depot - Barely ranking above Staples here though, but I still have to give them the edge for having two "Green" products at all. The Global Genoa desk product was not even on the floor in the store I went to, luckily I had an opportunity to see it from a local office supply dealer who also carried it. He knew all about Greenguard and was selling me up on it. Greenguard has several levels of certification - ones with FSC wood, ones with low VOC use, etc. The only thing mentioned in and on Office Depot materials are that "Greenguard certified for reduced chemical use and better indoor air quality" so there is no specific mention of the FSC wood here. I am not big on spending over $300 for something as vague as "reduced chemical use." Are we saying the product meets CARB phase 1, so the reduced chemical is formaldehyde? The finish is very nice even if the design is very boring. OD - drop this and get some really nice FSC-certified wood products with better design for more Eco-bang!
Now the Quantum Realspace Pro Chair - I am assuming this is a direct import because I couldn't find a manufacturer name anywhere on it to contact them. If there is a manufacturer, please feel free to comment below. The chair is very comfortable because of the mesh. It has a lot of give but no where except in the description on the website does it say that the mesh is recycled material. There is hardly any collateral with the chair, no real hang tags. I had to force a salesperson to find an instruction sheet. It had no information either. What exactly is the mesh made out of? It looks and feels like polyester and can't be recycled nylon because that has a down-cycling weakness problem if it is going to last and pass ANSI/BIFMA, which it says it does. I made an inquiry to OD and will post any comments I receive. I really hope I don't have to declare this chair a "green-wash." It would have been really great if the steel had been recycled steel though. It is the coolest part of the design to look down through the mesh and see the uncoated steel chrome shine through the seat before you sit down.
The other bright note at Office Depot - a small display of Pilot pens and mechanical pencils made from 70-80% post-consumer recycled plastic. unfortunately the display only had the green product in the top row, the rest were all the other Pilot products so it was too easy to walk away with the non-green ones.
3) Staples - Maybe the real reason Staples fell so far down the list is that I had such high hopes for them. With the Eco-Easy icon on the web site and because I have been going into my local Staples for months buying off this Eco end cap display from Zebra with a series of post-consumer recycled pens, pencils and highlighters that were so great that they just disappeared every time I showed them to people. For the last couple of months, the display has been missing and so has the pens from their regular offering, but the manager assured me that it was supposed to be back. This time when I went in, not only had they never heard of the pens or the display, but they couldn't barely find their own Eco Easy paper display. That display only had a line of plain brown wrapper pads and notebooks - what mom is going to convince her kid to buy those over the flashy pink and purple ones in the adjacent back-to-school section? Why brown bag-looking? Is it really necessary to make them this boring to be "Green? As for furniture - nothing! No Eco-Easy tags here.
If you would like me to revisit these rankings as you come out with new products, I would be happy to review. However, one word of advice as you go forward in the development of more sustainable and more regulation-compliant product - if you think I am critical, think again - I was not even thinking about putting down hard earned money in this tough economy when I reviewed your products, if I had I would have been even harsher. You need to make sure that you are more transparent, provide more information and surprise the consumer with what you have been able to achieve as a sustainable product OR Wal-Mart is going to kick your butt and you might as well just shrink your planogram now! But research indicates that there is a lot of great business out there for the one who does it right and there is a lot of skepticism over Wal-Mart's sincerity - wouldn't it be nice to capture the hearts of the middle class consumer who's mind already considers shopping at your store. It is a whole lot easier than wooing them back when they are shopping at Wal-Mart full-time for furniture, office supplies, ink, computers, etc...
Office Depot Follow-Up - The Quantum Realspace Chair is very Green! According to OD, the nylon and polyproplene frame and shell is made from 82% post consumer and 3% post-industrial recycled plastic. The mesh is 69% polyester co-polymer and 31% polyester nominal. The aluminum is 10% post industrial recycled metal and the steel is 40% post consumer and 10% post industrial recycled. Their new green label packaging had not quite caught up with the floor sample in the store, but it will soon. This is also a first from their direct import vendor. Going Green at that price looks very easy and feels comfortable too, so it should definitely translate into the kind of green we all need in this market right now. I am very sure that will not be the last green chair from that vendor or OD.
Posted by: Tracy Leigh | August 07, 2008 at 08:12 PM