Steelcase Demonstrates Commitment to Sustainability with New and Enhanced Products at Neocon 2009

media:scape™ settings can now host high-definition video conferencing

June 15, 2009 – Chicago, IL – Steelcase, (NYSE:SCS), a global office environments manufacturer, debuts new access floor, surface materials and upgrades to existing products that maximize efficiency and minimize the carbon footprint for companies worldwide, at NeoCon 2009, the World’s Trade Fair for Interior Design and Facilities Management. These innovations are on display in Steelcase’s newly-certified LEED showroom at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

“This is a challenging year for the global business community, and Steelcase is proud to introduce ways to help make work simpler, faster and more efficient so organizations can focus on achieving their business objectives,” said James Keane, president of Steelcase Group. “At the same time, this is an era seeking progress and we’re delivering with new and enhanced products designed to help companies make impressive strides towards achieving workplace sustainability.”

nesso™ Access Floor
Steelcase’s new access floor, nesso™, which means link in Italian, is the latest product in Steelcase’s portfolio to express the company’s commitment to sustainability. Made with a high-percentage of recycled materials including newspaper and flyash, all containing no PVCs, nesso connects the infrastructure of a workplace, allowing easy access to power and data in the floor. Offering increased performance and aesthetic features over traditional access floors – including a wide range of signature finishes such as marble, granite, slate, ceramic, linoleum, rubber, wood, vinyl and glass – nesso can be used in places where traditional raised access flooring would not have been possible. Designed to complement the company’s collection of solutions for more open, connected workspaces, the new line is as beautiful as it is durable so organizations can create better connected and harder working spaces.

The Cogent Group
Introduced in November 2008, The Cogent™ Group is a collection of environmentally-friendly textiles that combine sustainable results with thoughtful design. Comprised of seven patterns – including Connect, Geode Seating, Geode Vertical, Traxx, Tides, Trails and Wink – the collection, now available to order, offers a more broad range of colors and styles to customize and enhance any workspace. From an environmental perspective, the fabrics contain fewer traces of the heavy metals often found in furniture fabrics and are Gold Cradle-to-Cradle certified.

Other surface material enhancements include new wood grain laminates in finishes such as Warm Oak and clear Walnut, premium veneers and solids, bold new accent paints, accessory paints, and new knit products for chairs within Steelcase’s seating portfolio.

Think Enhancements
One of Steelcase’s leading products, the Think chair, receives new aesthetic and environmental upgrades this year enabling more customization and environmental options for the customer. The Think chair is the first ever certified level™ 3 product, the highest BIFMA e3 standard. Think is also the first product ever to receive Cradle to Cradle Certification(CM) (at the Gold level), and is SCS Indoor Advantage Gold certified for indoor air quality.

Incorporating Cogent Group textiles, the chair is now available in 14 standard color options for the 3D Knit back and coordinating Cogent:connect seating upholstery. The Think chair can add a splash of color to brighten up your office. The coverings are also easy to use for retrofits, so customers desiring an upgrade can easily swap out old seat coverings for a new look.
Steelcase is also adding a outer back fabric finish option that will enclose the chair’s iconic exposed back and flexors offering a quiet, refined look for a more subdued or sophisticated environment. Available in two fabric finishes, this option will complement the existing black and platinum frame finish choices.

Steelcase ships the majority of product without cartons in reusable packaging materials, and now has compressed the carton when it is required for Think and Amia seating. This eco-friendly method reduces the space the chairs require during the distribution process, eliminating approximately 150 Steelcase trucks on the highway per year. Think easily disassembles in five minutes with common hand tools, is comprised of up to 37 percent recycled content, and is up to 98 percent recyclable.

Elective Elements 6
Elective Elements 6 is offering new solutions that free users from being tethered to a wall or panel by integrating technology routing and access into components and allowing storage to divide space with multiple levels of privacy and slip-fit capabilities. Maintaining the strong architectural aesthetic of Elective Elements 6, the new products blend seamlessly with existing products and are at home either in the open plan or private office.

Three elements define the new solutions. A technology trough allows power and communication cables to route either through a component-based spine or off a panel-based spine and into component-based fins. Each access point via the grommet, which can also be used on a worksurface, allows for access to six power outlets and four communication ports at a convenient height. Second, the components, which support upper storage, provide privacy levels at 38”, 45” and 55” heights. The privacy within most of these heights can also be varied by selecting between open pass-through solutions with metal side supports and no pass-through solutions with wood panel supports. These components can be applied both side-by-side and back-to-back to support multiple configurations. Third, the new solution provides slip-fit capabilities, allowing for wall-to-wall fit-up and easy adjustment for architectural columns in a footprint.

The new solutions are at home in personal workspaces as small as 6’x6’ but can also be used in full-scale offices. Freestanding, appropriately scaled towers and stacking components complete the offering.

Available in natural wood finishes, Elective Elements 6 has a strong environmental story: it is manufactured in a LEED facility, Cradle-to-Cradle certified, SCS Indoor Advantage™ certified for indoor air quality, and has a water-borne wood finish.

i2i
A chair specifically designed to enhance and facilitate collaboration, i2i™ now offers a tablet arm option. The generously sized tablet arm accommodates most laptops and rotates to the center of the chair to allow both right and left hand users. The tablet arm is available in both laminate and veneer options.

i2i is free of adjustments, yet has a flexing back and a mechanism that invite both movement and support when sitting upright or reclined, with or without the use of the tablet arm. It supports a variety of postures through its dual swivel mechanism that allows users to swivel the seat and back together, swivel the back only (stay oriented to others while adjusting your posture to reduce fatigue) or swivel the seat only (keep your posture but change your orientation). The flexing back features molded “fingers “that support back movement and recline, for comfort. The articulating motion of the tablet arm mirrors the dual swivel function of the i2i seat and back.

The i2i chair was designed by Thomas Overthun from IDEO, in conjunction with the Steelcase Design Studio.

About Steelcase Inc.
Steelcase (NYSE: SCS) provides furniture, services and insights to help people have a better work experience, and to help companies and organizations create inspiring spaces with a maximum impact on performance and a minimum impact on the environment. A Michigan-based company that has been serving customers for nearly a century, Steelcase leads the global office furniture industry with $3.2 billion in annual revenue (FY09).

Learn more at www.steelcase.com or www.steelcase.com/cometogether.

Contact:
Jeanine Holquist
616.698.3765
jholquis@steelcase.com