Herman Miller’s newest seating option, the SAYL chair has now been released.  We got a chance to preview the SAYL today at our offices and we were very impressed.  The chair is very comfortable and supporting despite its simplicity.

This simplicity makes the chair extremely affordable.  At its price point, one would expect the SAYL to be an exercise in offhand design and minimal ergonomics when actually the opposite is true.  The SAYL was designed to be a high-quality, comfortable chair that incorporates everything Herman Miller is known for.

The SAYL was designed by Yves Béhar, who has worked for BMW, MINI,  Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft as well as previously collaborating with Herman Miller on other products such as the Leaf light.  The chair incorporates the elegant engineering and respect for the environment that all Herman Miller products have in common.  Utilizing fewer materials in inventive ways not only made the chair less expensive but also made it better for the environment.

A variety of options are available on the SAYL including 4 and 5 star base and side chair configurations as well as suspension, plastic or upholstered back.  Configured as a side chair the SAYL comes with a 4 leg or cantilevered base.

The 3D Intelligent back material of the chair is stretched from the Y-Tower at the back of the chair as cables are stretched from a suspension bridge.  Designer Béhar took inspiration from the Golden Gate Bridge in his native San Francisco when he designed the chair.  Beyond giving the chair it’s unique look, this design supports the healthy forward rotation of the pelvis and allows a full range of seated movement.

The SAYL is now available from Herman Miller, call Samuels Group | Environments today to find out even more about the latest offering in ergonomic seating from Herman Miller.

One part of Herman Miller’s 2020 Perfect Vision Goal,  has been achieved with 100% of their energy now coming from green sources.  Herman Miller accomplished this goal 10 years ahead of schedule and used the suggestions of their own employees to meet the requirements.

We’d expect nothing less from Herman Miller, a group of green-minded overachievers like ourselves!  Here’s the full story about their conversion to 100% green energy and examples of the employee ideas they used to achieve it.

http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/en-route-to-perfect-vision-one-sustainability-goal-achieved/

The flexibility and efficiency of our Herman Miller products was showcased for us in the past week as a part of our offices at 311 Financial Way in Wausau, Wisconsin were reconfigured.  To utilize space more efficiently and increase communication, we moved offices made with movable walls to another area and changed them out with the MyStudio office system by Herman Miller.

The movable walls came down in less than a day leaving us with a very open bullpen style office for the rest of the day.  Then occupants were displaced to a conference room for a day while the MyStudio was installed.  All in all the disruption was minimal and really showcased the ease at which you can reconfigure an office using  Herman Miller products.

The waste generated by the reconfiguration was also minimal, just a few scraps of packaging from the MyStudio and there was no waste generated by the reconfiguration of the movable wall systems.

If spring isn’t here already then it’s got to be pretty close.  Around the Environments offices, spring makes us think of green.  No, not money or that song Kermit the Frog sings, we’re talking about sustainability!  Of course, everyone is claiming to be green these days but when you’re talking about greening your office, there are some products that can truly make a difference for the environment.

Without a doubt, one of the most environmentally conscious companies in the world is Herman Miller.  A founding member of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) which literally sets the standards for green buildings, Herman Miller doesn’t just talk about sustainability, they practice it and use innovative methods to ensure their products are as friendly to the environment as possible.  Constantly refining their lineup to ensure that the most sustainable materials are used in the production of their products and bringing out new products that come closer and closer to completely recyclable, Herman Miller sets the bar for sustainable companies.

One example of how Herman Miller takes sustainability to a level that exceeds what one would expect of a company is how they dealt with a problem they had at a manufacturing facility at their headquarters in Western Michigan.

Herman Miller had just built a brand new environmentally sound manufacturing facility which was to serve as a pilot project for the development of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.  Dubbed “The Greenhouse” the facility was situated on a rolling prairie and landscaped with native vegetation and flowering plants.

Shortly after the project was completed a problem with paper wasps began to plague the new facility.  The aggressive wasps threatened visitors and workers and eventually made their way into the facility.  Some very un-green methods of ridding the facility of the wasps seemed to be the only solution, but Herman Miller did not want to spray gallons of toxic chemicals on their green facility.

Instead an innovative solution was proposed.  Honey bees.  Honey bees, naturally compete with wasps for food and territory.  After 12 beehives were brought in with approximately 600,000 honey bees, the paper wasps disappeared.

In addition to pollinating the flowering gardens, the bees produced over 4,800 pounds of honey which Herman Miller gives out to customers and visitors to their Western Michigan facility.

At Samuels Group | Environments we’re glad to work with Herman Miller to make spring a greener time.  Contact an Environments representative to find out how the Herman Miller products that we offer can make your office better for the environment.