Foresight: A Leading Player in BIFMA LEVEL Certification
Those in the furniture industry are familiar with The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), a non-profit association that develops standards for safety, durability, and sustainability. Over the years, Foresight has played a huge role in helping thousands of products meet some of BIFMA’s highest standards.
We specialize in LEVEL® by BIFMA certification, the third-party certification for environmentally and socially responsible products. For over 20 years we’ve helped our clients earn certification for 1,661 office furniture products – or 30 percent of all products on the LEVEL registry.
BIFMA LEVEL certification is a multi-attribute certification which assesses more than one category of impact at more than one level. The standard focuses on the sustainability of the organizational, facility, and products for a given Brand. Our process includes collecting, organizing, analyzing, processing, and submitting applicable documentation on behalf of Brands or organizations to assess the materials, chemistry, energy, environment, human health & wellness, and social impacts of making a product. The depth and breadth of these efforts help products achieve LEVEL 1, LEVEL 2, LEVEL 3, or the new
LEVEL 4.
While the more common ANSI/BIFMA rating assures customers that the product they’re choosing measures up to standards for safety and durability, LEVEL certification does even more. This rating system helps manufacturers increase their social and environmental responsibility while giving designers, architects, and customers a transparent, unbiased way to compare products and choose the ones that meet their goals.
Interested in pursuing LEVEL certification for your product? We’d be happy to support you as we’ve done for so many others across the industry. Over time, we’ve also supported 45 out of 83 – or more than half of all brands on that registry, ranging from the smallest to largest manufacturers in North America. With members of our team having served as authors for the updated e3 standard, we’re uniquely equipped to help you navigate this certification with excellence.
