newsletter

director: margaret haynes editor: john haynes w: www.ofas.org.uk issue 63 (winter 2011/12)

wood you go green?

A review of green procurement policies and practices in the office furniture sector

opening comment
Although it is not yet Christmas, by the time you read this 2011 will be over and not too many businesses will mourn its passing. It has been a difficult year but it is encouraging to see that the industry has largely survived, possibly shaken but not stirred. New Year is a time for facing the future with a Bondlike spirit of adventure and eternal optimism, so roll on 2012. We at ofas are grateful to all of you who have continued to support us despite financial constraints, and we believe and hope that we have delivered a worthwhile and costeffective service. Ever keen to improve we have recently introduced just one class of membership, opening up access to entries in the ofasNewsletter to all of our members. This current edition also sees the introduction of a regular feature articles from FIRA and Workplace Law keeping you all up to date with vital information relating to the office furniture trade. And look out for even more editorial content in future editions. If you have any suggestions for features you would like to see introduced, please let ue know. Next year sees the welcome return of Design Prima at the Business Design Centre (see Whats On), with the strong possibility of another industry based show later in the year. This news, together with the continuing success of Clerkenwell Design Week, should give a much-needed boost to trade and we wish these initiatives and our readers every success in 2012.

ithin the office furniture procurement process, are issues of sustainability taken seriously? Are our customer sectors adopting green procurement policies and practices or simply paying lip service to these issues? What is driving purchasing decisions and are there differences between the public and private sectors? These were the main questions driving Martyn Wraggs MBA dissertation project, under the supervision of Dr Fiona Lettice, at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia. the use of hazardous substances in the production process, formaldehyde emissions and management of the originating forest. If these can be safely managed, the use of wood in furniture should be promoted. However, there is little overall global control or governmental legislation on the use of sustainable woods, and illegal import of woods, for example, from Indonesia to the UK (Pamden (2007) rose from 1.88m over 2006 to 1.68m for just the first 4 months of 2007). Environmental continues on page 12...

Office Furniture - Many different materials are used in the production of office furniture, as can be seen in Figure 1 (McCabe et al. 2009). The environmental impact stems mainly from the production and treatment of the raw material used in the manufacture process, rather than from the production of the furniture itself. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) guidelines state that for wood and wood-based products, the environmental impact should be mitigated by careful management of

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product news company news contracts 02 17 21 situations vacant personnel services 24 25 25

margaret haynes, director, ofas

Figure 1: Share of materials used in furniture production (by value). (Mc Cabe et al., 2009) As the majority of wood used in furniture is treated in some format, attention must be paid to the surface treatment of wood. In addition to solid wood, wood-based particle, MDF, plywood and fibreboard panels are produced and widely used. Predominantly these panels are used in many manufacturing establishments and contribute to the finished article such as cupboards, tables and desks etc. Most of these panels are essentially produced under heat and pressure with the addition of an adhesive, to glue fibres, particles or sheets of wood respectively. The environmental and health impacts of these products are linked to forestry practices and the substances used as glues and finishing such as formaldehyde resins, melamine, epoxy, polyurethane resins, ethylene vinyl acetate, and so on.

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labeling has been introduced to combat some of these issues, so that producers can demonstrate that the wood comes from sustainable sources. Hornes (2009) review of 36 mandatory and voluntary labelling schemes found that the system was weak due to high levels of bureaucracy, complexity, rigidity, delays in setting criteria and the lack of star ratings. There is also confusion between different labeling schemes and what they certify. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the worlds forests and plays a key role in certifying and labelling timber and paper products to encourage more environmentally sound purchasing practices, including within the office furniture sector. The MBA project used a questionnaire survey to ask public and private sector organisations to rate their understanding and use of sustainability as a factor in their office furniture procurement policies and practices. Eighty six questionnaires (47 from public sector and 39 from private sector organisations) were received from architects (13 questionnaires), schools (13 questionnaires), contractors (10 questionnaires), commercial (23 questionnaires), health service (11 questionnaires) and government organisations (16 questionnaires). The key findings from this study are: Commitment to Green Procurement - The responses showed that there is strong agreement that sustainable development should be a consideration by organisations, with a slightly higher agreement to this statement by public sector organisations (90.7% agree overall; 93.6% for public sector and 87.2% for private sector organisations). There was also strong support for government legislation on environmental issues such as sustainable procurement (54.7% agree, but 18.6% disagree). Again, the public sector is more supportive than the private sector (57.4% and 51.3%). For the question as to whether organisations should implement their own sustainable procurement criteria and practices, there was strong agreement to this (83.7% overall; 87.2% public sector

and 79.4% private sector organisations), but the private sector was a bit more cautious than the public sector because of the possible cost implications of more green procurement. Both sectors saw sustainability as being important to promote a good image in the market (81.4% overall; 83% public sector and 79.5% private sector organisations). So generally, there is strong support for sustainable business practices, including green procurement. Sensitivity to Cost - 77.9% of organisations said they had a sustainable procurement policy, and 20.9% had had one for more than 5 years. But, when asked if all organisations should have one regardless of the cost implications, a different picture emerges. Collectively, 57% agree, 22% disagree and 21% are unsure. As expected, the private sector is more sensitive to the cost implications, where 43.6% agree and 28.2% disagree, compared to 68.1% agree and 17.1% disagree in the public sector. Key Purchasing Criteria - We asked the organisations to rank their purchasing criteria. For both public and private sector organisations, the quality of the product and then price, followed by delivery were the most important criteria, as can be seen in Figure 2. For the private sector, sustainability of the product was ranked fifth after company reputation. For the public sector, sustainability ranked fourth. Accreditation certificates (such as ISO 14000) were ranked 6th by both sectors. However, when asked if sustainability should be high on their organisations decision making criteria, 68.7% agreed. There is therefore a gap between which criteria our respondents think should be influencing decision making and the actual purchasing criteria being used in practice. International Labelling Schemes - a surprisingly low number of organisations were familiar with international labeling schemes for sustainable materials for office furniture (such as the German Blaue Engel/Blue Angel scheme which considers the whole life cycle of the product and only certifies furniture where more than 50% of it is wood; and the Thai Green Label scheme which only certifies products that have a

Figure 2: Importance of different purchasing criteria for office furniture procurement.Accreditation How important is it to customers that their suppliers have achieved regulatory business standards and accreditation? The answer to this question is very different depending on which sector. In the public sector, 72.3% agree that it is important for their suppliers to have some form of accreditation (such as ISO 14001). In the private sector, only 48.7% agree with this statement. The procurement process in the public sector is influenced by mandates and EU directives, whereas the private sector is self regulatory.

minimal detrimental impact on the environment in comparison to other similar products). Just 13.9% of respondents were familiar with labeling schemes and 67.4% were not at all familiar with them. There was very little difference between the public and private sectors in response to this question. We also asked whether a labeling scheme more specific to office furniture would influence the purchasing decision. Across both sectors only 4.7% agreed, 52.3% were not sure and 43% disagreed. So, even if a comprehensive labeling scheme existed, it would not necessarily be widely considered in the purchasing decision. Call for Action - The research and analysis was based on a relatively small number of customers within the office furniture market, but we would expect that these findings are fairly representative of the general procurement policies and practices across the sector. Although there is increasing recognition of the importance of sustainability and the need for green procurement, more consideration of these issues is required in both the public and private sectors. With an increasing focus on costs and margins in the private sector and spending cuts within the public sector, future organisations will inevitably be driven by price rather than by sustainable criteria. Future Research - The topic is emotive and further research is needed to better understand how to use marketing and government support and legislation to encourage more procurement decisions, to include sustainability criteria. Future research should also consider the differences between sustainable procurement and best value procurement in the office furniture market, balancing the visible costs with the more hidden costs of environmental negligence.

References * Horne R (2009) Limits to Labels: the role of eco-labels in the assessment of product sustainability and routes to sustainable consumption. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33 (2) pp 175-182 * Mc Cabe S, Clement S and Ocha A (2009) Sustainable Procurement Guidelines for Office Furniture. Local Government for Sustainability, United Nations Environmental Programme, pp 1-31 * Pamden D (2007) Chop illegal timber imports. Cabinet Maker, Issue 5549, August, p10

Martyn Wragg is Marketing Director of Millar West Office Furniture, offering a full range of standard and bespoke designs, as well as a comprehensive range of Laboratory and Food Technology furniture. For more information on this project, please contact Martyn at martyn@millarwest.co.uk