I was looking for clarification on the LEED definition of "system's furniture". System's furniture in the interiors world typically means a panel based workstation and it's components. Our project is a facility for technical college courses. We have included all the office furniture and workstations in a hoteling area we have for instructors in transit. However, we did count the classroom furniture which are tables and work chairs. We received a comment from the first design review that said:
"Please provide a complete spreadsheet of all the furniture in the project. Ensure that the spreadsheet includes the product, date of manufacturing for the product, and dates of certification."
Would the classroom furniture be considered systems furniture? I could see how this would be possible for the classroom furniture but the comment asks for a list of ALL furniture in the project with their date of manufacturing and certification. Any suggestions on how to respond?
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Michael Smithing
Director - Green Building AdvisoryColliers International Ltd.
304 thumbs up
July 25, 2014 - 3:34 am
I've had a similar comment in the past (on an office project) and we thus always provide a complete furniture list and note which furniture is NOT systems furniture (in our case generally reception seating, break/kitchen seating). I've seen comments that indicate conference room furniture can also be excluded but we generally try to purchase certified conference room furniture to avoid putting this to the test.
My guess is that the classroom furniture is also a grey area - if it looks like it could be used in an office and (particularly) if it is marketed as office furniture, then it would likely need to be certified. If it is marketed specifically for use in schools, then you may be able to demonstrate it is not systems furniture; however I'm pretty sure LEED has specifications for school furniture - if this represents a significant portion of the overall furniture budget then you may be technically meeting the credit requirements without satisfying the intent.