BIFMA and SPLC Partner As Green Design Authority

With the recent strategic partnership between the

Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA)

and the

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC)

, the A&D community is one step closer to having an entity that will assess the authenticity of green products. Together, BIFMA and SPLC form an authoritative voice that purchasers can rely on to inform them when making procurement decisions.

One of the first sustainable certification programs in the furniture industry that will be examined by the SPLC (previously known as the Green Products Roundtable) will be level®, which ranks furniture based on three different levels of sustainability. These levels are similar to the ranking system used by the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED program, which too is in a state of flux as it’s in the final stages of undergoing an overhaul and will debut later this year as LEED v4.

“Our mission with this partnership is to make it as simple as possible for furniture buyers and customers to understand the different levels of sustainability when making a purchase,” says Brad Miller (at left), director of advocacy and communications for BIFMA. (Miller formerly served on the Green Products Roundtable.)

He continues: “This is an exciting time. To see it all come together, it’s very gratifying and a sign of hope. [This partnership] makes it easier for architects, designers, and institutional purchasers to work together with a common language that has a common framework.”

The BIFMA and SLPC partnership will publicly launch on July 23 in Washington, D.C., via webcast.