Herman Miller Embody Chairs - Environmental Product Summary - Manual

Our sustainability goals by the year 2020:
• Zero carbon footprint
• Zero landfill
• Zero hazardous waste generation
• Zero air emissions (VOCs)
• Zero process water use
• 100 percent renewable electrical energy use via renewable
energy credits and a power purchase agreement
• Company buildings constructed to a minimum LEED Silver certification
• 100 percent of sales from DfE approved products
Environmental Product Summary
Embody
™
Chair
Design Story: Shifting Paradigms
The Embody story began in the design studio of
Jeff Weber and the late Bill Stumpf. They had an idea:
“What if a chair could positively impact people so
they can work and live better?” As Embody’s designer,
Weber gave the chair its function and form, building
on Stumpf’s inspiration. Their idea arose out of their
approach to design. “You can’t design without
empathy,” says Weber, who thrives on projects that
involve the human experience.
Designed specifically for people who sit at their
computers, Embody’s form is driven by its health-positive
features: an instinctive back that fits the unique spinal
curvature of each user; Pixelated Support
™ , which
distributes the user’s weight to help keep blood
circulating; a narrow backrest that lets users move
their arms freely; and the Embody tilt, which encourages
seated movement. These innovations provide com-
puter users with the support they need to keep their
eyes aligned with their visual display, no matter what
seated posture they’re in. A new reference for comfort,
Embody supports people intuitively, allowing them to
be undistracted and focus on their work.
Our commitment to corporate sustainability naturally
includes minimizing the environmental impact of each
of our products. Our Design for Environment team (DfE)
applies environmentally sensitive design standards to
both new and existing Herman Miller products.
The DfE Design Protocol goes beyond regulatory
compliance to thoroughly evaluate new product
designs in four key areas:
• Material Chemistry and Safety of Inputs—
What chemicals are in the materials we specify, and
are they the safest available?
• Disassembly—Can we take products apart at the
end of their useful life, to recycle their materials?
• Recyclability—Do the materials contain recycled
content, and more importantly, can the materials be
recycled at the end of the product’s useful life?
• LCA—Have we optimized the product based on the
entire life cycle?
level ® Certification
Embody is level 3 certified. The level conformance
mark ensures a comprehensive, independent, and
impartial assessment of the environmental and social
impacts of a product.
Cradle to Cradle Certified
CM
Embody is Cradle to Cradle Certified CM Silver. This
means that Embody has been evaluated for its
material health, and is designed for material reuse in
a closed loop system, such as recycling or composting.
It is assembled using 100% renewable energy.
Material Content
The Embody chair’s components are constructed from
steel, plastic, aluminum, textile, foam, and other
materials.
The Embody chair is up to 95 percent recyclable at
the end of its useful life.
z
1
Y
® Y and Z are among the registered trademarks of Herman Miller, Inc.
TM Embody and Pixelated Support are among the trademarks of Herman Miller, Inc.
Cradle to Cradle Certified CM is a certification mark licensed by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.
® level is a trademark of BIFMA International.
® GREENGUARD is a registered trademark of the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute.
© 2012 Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland, Michigan
STEEL 37%
PLASTIC 39%
ALUMINUM 19%
TEXTILE 3%
FOAM 1%
OTHER 1%