Assufficio, will present Level: the first pan-European Sustainable Certification Programme during the next seminar in Milan titled “Qualità e Sostenibilità nel Workplace. Approccio olistico e competenza tecnica” on December 2nd, in Milan.
In order to face the proliferation of certifications schemes, labels and voluntary standards covering the environmental and social sustainability of furniture products, the FEMB decided in 2010 to adopt a proactive approach and start a process of harmonization existing material and provide a sustainability certification scheme of its own for Europe.
The “level” certification programme, follows the experience gained by BIFMA in North America and proceeds along a similar path to provide a voluntary certification scheme, specifically designed to cover the environmental and social sustainability of companies products. The ANSI/BIFMA structure has been retained with specific needs of the European context taken into account.
We now have a pan-European certification scheme for the sustainability of office furniture. So far in Europe manufacturers still have to meet different environmental requirements and get different certifications depending on the market of destination of their products. This entails additional costs for producers and difficulties for clients. level will not substitute at once the national certifications but indicates a common European path to be followed and a common methodology to present the environmental characteristics of a product in a clear, easily understood manner with a common language that gives end users the ability to make easy comparisons.
With the new FEMB certification, customers will be able to make informed choices about commercial furniture that exceed single attribute eco-certifications. As in the case of the BIFMA level certification, the new FEMB mark will identify that a product has been checked by an independent third party certifier. A numeric scaling from 1 to 3 will indicate what threshold of certification it has achieved.
Speeches by: Marco Predari (president Assufficio); Marco Fossi (president Commissione Tecnica FEMB e responsabile Ufficio Tecnico Normativo FLA), Michele Falcone (past president FEMB), Stefano Serra (vice coordinatore Commissione Tecnica Assufficio e coordinatore Gruppo Pareti), Remo Lucchi (vice president Assufficio), Silvia Piardi (director Polidesign del Politecnico).
More information is available at www.femb.org and Assufficio
To participate: assufficio@federlegnoarredo.it
Title seminar: “Qualità e Sostenibilità nel Workplace. Approccio olistico e competenza tecnica”
Where: US 49Eventi (Universal Selecta) via Ettore Ponti 49, Milano.
When: 2nd Dicember 2014, 5/7,30 pm
