Humanscale Sells One-Millionth Freedom Chair

Humanscale announces it has sold one million Freedom chairs by legendary designer Niels Diffrient. Thanks to revolutionary design and broad appeal, Freedom has become one of the best-selling high-performance task chairs in the world since it was first available to the market in 2001. Freedom’s emphasis on simplicity—and Diffrient’s belief that form flows from function—delivers unmatched functionality and ease of use, while its distinctive exoskeletal frame has made it one of the most widely recognizable, and influential, task chair designs in the world.

Freedom’s impact on the task seating category—and ergonomics as a whole—has been far-reaching. Widely considered the gold standard for task chairs, its influence is reflected in both new seating design and sustainability efforts within the industry.

At the time of Freedom’s launch, Humanscale was a $44 million company—a very small player in the contract furniture industry—and notably, one that had never before sold a chair. Behind eight-plus years of Freedom sales, however, Humanscale topped $200 million in 2008 and is recognized as the undisputed leader in office ergonomics.

The Freedom chair was the first task chair to prioritize simplicity over the ever-growing number of manual controls seen on other high-end task chairs. Its self-adjusting, weight-sensitive recline changed the way people thought about task seating and Freedom continues to be one of the simplest task seating solutions available today.

Freedom’s resume includes a laundry list of other “firsts” for task seating:

• First task chair to offer self-adjusting recline
• First and only task chair with synchronously adjustable arm supports
• First and only task chair with self-adjusting headrest
• First task chair to feature a gel seat cushion
• First task chair to feature an exoskeletal design

Ahead of the curve for environmental sustainability, Freedom featured an eco-friendly design before “going green” became de rigueur. Its user-centered design allowed for the removal of a significant number of parts, such as the tension recline mechanism found on other task chairs. Its predominant use of 100% recycled and recyclable aluminum and overall recycled content of 62% minimizes the use of virgin materials. In addition, aluminum’s high (and growing) scrap value creates an incentive for Freedom to actually be recycled when the time comes. Its innovative, modular design extends the useful life of the chair by easily facilitating cushion upgrades and in-field repairs. And at 35 pounds, Freedom is among the lightest task chairs on the market.

In addition to receiving 10 international design awards over the years, Freedom has found its way into the annals of pop culture. Freedom made its big screen debut in the 2001 film Antitrust starring Tim Robbins and Ryan Phillippe. Since then, by set designer request, it has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures and will be seen in six more this year. It has also been featured in 20 primetime television series such as 24, House, Boston Legal, CSI: Miami, Medium, and Ugly Betty, among many others.

For more information about Humanscale and its ergonomic solutions, visit www.humanscale.com or call 800-400-0625.

About Humanscale

Humanscale is the premier designer and manufacturer of ergonomic tools for a more comfortable workplace. Our innovative seating, monitor arms, lighting, keyboard supports, and other ergonomic solutions are designed to improve the health, efficiency and quality of work life.

Humanscale products are based on the belief that when design solves a functional problem as simply and elegantly as possible, the resulting form will be honest and timeless. This philosophy has served us well: Humanscale was the only contract furniture manufacturer named among I.D. Magazine’s top ten “enterprises that help push design forward” along with other design-driven companies including Nike and BMW. And our Liberty chair was the only task seating solution featured in the 2007 National Design Triennial at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Liberty joined the Apple iPod and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jet, among others, as one of the most important design innovations in America.

Environmental Statement

Humanscale is committed to environmental sustainability and continually strives to design, engineer and manufacture products that:

• Weigh less, requiring less raw material
• Use fewer parts and manufacturing processes
• Contain a high percentage of recycled content
• Contain a high percentage of recyclable content

Humanscale is also a proud supporter of World Wildlife Fund, and our founder and CEO, Robert King, has served on WWF’s National Council since 1999.

Green Building is more expensive. Think Again!

Consider two similar office buildings. One was built traditionally—a developer hired an architect to draw up plans, a construction company built the offices to specifications, and an engineering company installed lighting, temperature control and water systems. The building serves its purpose just fine, but some workers complain about the air conditioner being too cold, that the air inside feels stuffy, and the office lighting feels “too artificial.”

The second building was constructed by an integrated design-build-engineering team and was meticulously planned. It uses 30 percent less energy and water than the first building. The building is full of fresh air and natural light, and workers miss fewer days due to illness. In fact, workers are proud to tell friends about their innovative “green” office building.

Which building cost more to build? Most people assume that a superior product costs a lot more and ask, “So how much extra will green cost me?” The more sophisticated question is, “How soon will that extra cost get paid back?” But leading developers are now constructing high-performance green buildings at construction costs similar to traditional buildings or even lower. (Making the truly sophisticated question more like: “How can we design a building that delivers better performance, lower operating costs and lower initial costs?”)

Think it’s more expensive? Think again.
Despite the common perception that green building costs more, building green can help reduce operating costs with little or no additional construction cost. Numerous examples prove that green building can be cost-effective. In 2003, California’s Sustainable Building Task Force published “The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings,” a survey of 33 green buildings for which detailed financial data was available on both traditional and green scenarios.

“The eight LEED Bronze buildings had an average cost premium of less than 1 percent. The 18 LEED-Silver certified buildings averaged a 2.1 percent cost premium, whereas the six Gold-certified buildings had an average premium of 1.8 percent. The single Platinum building was at 6.5 percent.”

The report concluded that the average premium for all 33 studied green buildings was slightly less than 2 percent ($3 to $5 per square foot), an insignificant premium—actually, a great investment—compared with the savings achieved from lower energy and water bills.

Reduced electricity, gas and water demands create significant savings over the lifetime of a building.

What do you need to know?
Cost-effective green buildings can be achieved by taking an integrative, “whole building approach.” The secret is in the planning.

As the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) writes,     “The goal of green building is not to squeeze energy-efficiency features into a tight development budget. The goal, rather, is to analyze such interconnected issues as site and building design, energy and water efficiency, resource efficient construction, lighting and mechanical design, and building ecology, and optimize all these aspects in an integrated design.

Features that might have higher individual costs (for example, better windows) might actually reduce the whole building cost because other elements such as the heating system can be downsized or eliminated. To capture these multiple benefits of synergistic design elements, the building must be evaluated as a whole, not ‘value engineered’ item by item.”

The itemized cost analysis that RMI warns against is exactly how buildings have traditionally been assessed. It takes a lot more up-front vision and planning to coordinate all the elements in planning phases.

Often the most significant cost-savings come from increased worker productivity in green buildings. All that extra light and fresh air puts workers in a better mood, benefits their health, and has been shown to decrease sick days.

Considering green building options.

There are a number of considerations to consider:

• Engage your financial team in a fresh look as it conducts cost-benefit analyses for investment options.
• Consider the lifecycle costs in a whole building approach, not just first costs, to get a true comparison of costs and benefits.
• Start your green planning early! Case studies have shown that the earlier a green building project brings its team together for planning, the more savings that are generated by resource efficiency.

How will energy price volatility affect the economics of green buildings?
I see it this way: The financial performance of green buildings is trending better than historical data because the cost premiums are shrinking or disappearing as architects and builders gain experience, whereas the cost of energy, despite current volatility, is likely to continue to rise. And as the world takes on market caps on carbon, the demand for—and economics of—green buildings will only get better.

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