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DEFRA has announced the results of its industry consultation into the proposed Government Buying Standards for furniture.
This set of tendering guidelines is designed to improve sustainable purchasing within Government. If adopted these will be mandatory requirements for all central Government departments. DEFRA has decided, following the consultation, to put the proposed requirements through for approval.
FIRA represented the industry on the steering committee developing these requirements, trying to ensure that the UK office and contract industry was not disadvantaged. During the consultation the organisation liaised closely with industry, via the FIRA/BCFA Office Furniture Manufacturers Technical Forum. FIRA's response to the consultation was very challenging over three issues:
1. Stressing the point that it must be the specifier who buys/uses re-used/
re-manufactured products, rather than the onus being put on the
manufacturer.
2. Rejecting the 5% limit for VOCs on surface finishing, which would prevent the
use of most UV lacquers.
3. Rejecting the use of eco-label requirements for textiles and mattresses being
used to assess fabrics and foams used in furniture, which disadvantage the UK
industry.
FIRA has been able to win two of these arguments for this industry in that the option selected for re-use/re-manufacture is Option B, which places the onus for sourcing/using such products on the specifier rather than the manufacturer, and this is further outlined in the response. In addition DEFRA accepted that UK manufacturers could not meet the VOC requirements for surface finish without considerable investment, and a loss in durability of the product. This requirement has now been moved from the mandatory requirements to an award requirement (DEFRA are keen that the industry works on a solution to the problem over the next few years to reduce the emission of VOCs).
Unfortunately FIRA was not able to win the argument regarding the use of eco-label requirements, which further emphasises that the industry needs a seat at the table developing eco-label schemes to ensure that the requirements that disadvantage the UK furniture industry are not included.
The full DEFRA response to the consultation can be downloaded here
