Office Furniture Dealers
COMPANIES HAVE LONG REGARDED green as the color of money. More recently, it’s also become the color associated with eco-friendly business practices ? including the use of office furniture made from recycled or renewable materials.
The green or sustainable office furniture market makes up less than 1 percent of the overall $13 billion pie, but it’s growing fast, say local dealers.
“The last six to nine months have exploded, even for those of us who are sensitized to it,” says Erik Knutson, executive vice president and co-owner of Baltix Sustainable Furniture, in Long Lake. Half a year ago, his company would get a bid every week or two weeks. Now, it gets one a day.
“We are already in a situation where we’re having a hard time keeping up.” Word of mouth, he says, is driving the interest.
Al Gore’s study of global warming, laid out in his Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” is one reason for the burgeoning interest. But overall awareness of environmental issues has been steadily building in the mainstream, says Knutson. “Among the company’s commercial clients, small businesses are more likely to purchase green office furniture,” says Knutson, because owners themselves are make the buying decisions. Many are motivated by personal morality or ethics; others know that such obvious environmental awareness can put money in their pockets by impressing customers.
“It’s definitely a selling point,” says Heather Lipinski, an interior designer with Shea Inc., a Minneapolis-based design firm.
Conscious decision
One of Baltix’s taglines is green from the ground up.? Besides its obvious interpretation, the phrase is also a play on words, referring to the company?s use of ground-up sunflower husks, wheat straw, and other natural materials to build parts of its furniture.
Holding the particles together is a binder that contains none of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and toxic chemicals otherwise found in conventional furniture.
“The company tries to avoid using wood since it’s not rapidly renewable,” says Knutson. Varnishes are all water-based.
“For some customers, buying green furniture is a deliberate choice made by a particularly earth-conscientious owner. They’re willing to make the investment, regardless of the cost,” says Knutson.
Small businesses are more likely to fall into this category, he says. With large companies, purchases are controlled and handled by agents or facilities managers, usually in sprawling departments. They?re more likely to make decisions based on value, not values. (They, however, have the big budgets for buying green furniture, says Lipinski.)
Tom Birkeland, marketing director for North American Wetland Engineering (NAWE), White Bear Lake, says his company ?made a conscious decision? to buy green furniture when it moved from Forest Lake in fall 2005. It leased furniture at its former office.
NAWE located Baltix with a simple Web search. The company has revenue under $5 million.
All 25 employees from the president to the receptionist use new Baltix workstations, which include cubicle panels, desks and conference tables. Also incorporated into d’cor are partially recycled carpet, old filing cabinets and refurbished chairs.
The company creates solutions for wastewater treatment, so “we really want to incorporate that philosophy into our everyday-to-day operations,” he says. “The benefits of having environmentally friendly furniture outweighed any kind of cost considerations.”
Nevertheless, NAWE does gain a business advantage, he says. Having green office furniture boosts its credibility among clients, which include residential and commercial developers. To get the point across, NAWE features a small display near its front entrance, showcasing blocks of the various compressed natural materials used in Baltix furniture.
“Heightened recognition among a company’s customers and peers is one intangible benefit of green office furniture,” Lipinski says.
The same goes for dealers themselves. Jennifer Smith, president of Burnsville-based Innovative Office Solutions, has carried a limited-distribution green furniture line ? manufactured by Marlton, New Jersey-based Evolve Furniture Group since 2004. Her furniture business is up more than 66 percent since last year, in part because of it, she says.
More than anything else, the line has provided her with a niche to help her company stand out from the crowd.
“There are so many furniture dealers in the Twin Cities area alone, so it’s very hard to compete and differentiate yourself,” she says.
One at a time
Companies aspiring to go green typically don’t do it 100 percent. Instead, they select one aspect of their business to change.
Overshadowing furniture in popularity is green building, where energy-efficient lighting, heating and materials are incorporated into the design and construction of an office or headquarters. Companies can measure the return-on-investment in hard numbers, such as a low energy bill.
“With furniture, you’re still getting into those squishy numbers, like productivity,” says Knutson, referring to studies that suggest off-gases and vapors from traditional furniture and carpets may diminish employee concentration.
The lag may also be caused in part by a delayed embrace in the interior design industry. Green office furniture is still on the bleeding edge, says Lipinski, so doubts linger about its durability. Using refurbished and reused traditional furniture is still very much the way of the corporate world.
“It’s still a learning process for us,” says Andy McDermott, communications director at Shea. “The materials are all very new and we can’t readily go in and recommend something that hasn?t been tried and true over the long haul yet.”
Some customers may worry that green office furniture won?t mix and match well with their current furniture set. Others are concerned that it?ll simply go out style if society?s interest in environmental matters wanes.
To alleviate these misgivings, Evolve offers a 20-year non-obsolescence guarantee. The company manufactures its line using wheat straw, recycled fabric and wood scraps left over from their factories.
Prices more competitive
“The idea for green furniture sprang from the environmental movement that began in the 1960s and 1970s. But back then, ?it tended to cost a lot, it tended to not work, and a lot of times it didn’t look normal,” Knutson says.
Some of Baltix’s furniture does look very “granola,” says Knutson, but in many cases that’s what companies want. Owners and other top officers prefer to show off the fact that they’re concerned about the environment.
Prices are much more competitive than in the past. On the low end, usually for cubicles, a company could expect to pay about $1,500 a head; on the high end, for more luxurious wares such as credenzas and storage cabinets for private offices, a company could expect to pay between $5,000 and $6,000 a head.
Knutson is quick to point out these aren’t exact numbers: In the office-furniture industry, it’s common for dealers, independent reps and other operators in the middle to mark up, deeply discount or throw in a freebie as part of a package deal.
While green office furniture can?t compete with the low, low prices of OfficeMax, Baltix is on par, if not priced lower, than common furniture brands like Herman Miller, which can easily run up into the tens of thousands a head.
Baltix’s biggest customer base comprising between 40 percent and 50 percent is colleges and universities. “They tend to be thought leaders,” says Knutson. “They seem to be willing to take a step out of the norm a little more than perhaps commercial businesses are.” The rest is split evenly between corporate clients and government agencies.
Baltix posted a little less than $500,000 in revenue in 2006. This year, the company anticipates $1 million in revenue. The company handles design and marketing internally, but outsources its manufacturing, though not outside the U.S.
The market has come a long way since its idealistic beginnings. In a sign of the times, Knutson says venture capital firms have expressed interest in Baltix.
“Green is sort of the new dot-com for investment money,” he says. “It’s in vogue.”
[contact] Tom Birkeland, North American Wetland Engineering: 651.255.5050; tbirkeland@nawe-pa.com; www.nawe-pa.com. Erik Knutson, Baltix Sustainable Furniture: 763.210.0155; erik@baltix.com; www.baltix.com. Heather Lipinski, Andy McDermott, Shea Inc.: 612.339.2257; heatherl@shealink.com; andym@shealink.com; www.shealink.com. Jennifer Smith, Innovative Office Solutions: 952.808.9900; jsmith@innovativeos.com; www.innovativeos.com.
