Vari Product Certification List

BIFMA (Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacture Association) is the leading trade association for business and institutional furniture manufacturers. They set the most sought-after standards in the industry regarding ergonomics and safety.

In 2017, BIFMA partnered with UL to begin issuing BIFMA performance certifications, which are a step above simply testing to ANSI*/BIFMA performance standards for furniture. They test and verify products for BIFMA standards and confirm the legitimacy of the product testing and resulting data. So basically, BIFMA sets the industry standards and UL performs the actual testing to ensure that products meet those standards.

The UL BIFMA performance mark is the first and only program that certifies that products meet BIFMA standards and provides a basis for evaluating the performance and durability of products.

As of August 2017, Vari was the first company in the world to achieve UL/BIFMA certification in the sit-stand category.

There are other organizations who run third party testing labs, but UL is the only one who can say a product is “UL certified to BIFMA standards” or the product has received “UL BIFMA Performance Certification”.

*ANSI: American National Standards Institute

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Provides a common basis for evaluating the safety, durability, and structural performance of desk/table products intended for use in commercial office and related institutional environments such as educational environments. It provides test methods and performance requirements for desk/table products.

Provides performance requirements for the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde and aldehydes, from office furniture and seating. It specifies acceptance levels that define low-emitting furniture independent of construction materials, manufacturing processes, mechanical designs, or aesthetic designs. It applies to newly manufactured products only and not to products that have been in use.

Provides manufacturers, specifiers, and users with a common basis for evaluating the safety, durability, and structural adequacy of general-purpose office chairs that are normally used in an office environment. This may include, but is not limited to, those seating styles typically referred to as: executive/management, task/secretarial, side/guest chairs, nesting folding chairs, tablet arm chairs, and stools.

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The GREENGUARD Certification gives assurance that products designed for use in indoor spaces meet strict chemical emissions limits, which contribute to the creation of healthier interiors. Achieving GREENGUARD Certification gives credence to manufacturers’ sustainability claims, backing them with empirical scientific data from an unbiased, third-party organization.

GREENGUARD Gold Certification offers stricter certification criteria, considers safety factors to account for sensitive individuals (such as children and the elderly), and ensures that a product is acceptable for use in environments such as schools and healthcare facilities. It is referenced by both The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System.

UL issues both certifications and they apply to all the materials used in a product. Hundreds of tests are performed to measure environmental impact. Many Vari products have both GREENGUARD and GREENGUARD Gold certification which means they also automatically meet the ANSI/BIFMA X7.1 standard.

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Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is the largest and best known independent, not-for-profit testing laboratory in the world. They conduct safety and quality tests on a broad range of products to provide a full spectrum of conformity and quality assessment services to manufacturers and other organizations.

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