The integration of sustainability criteria into new product development at Herman Miller was a corporate strategy driven by senior management. This signaled to all levels of the organization that sustainable product design was being embraced and was to become one of the cornerstones of Herman Miller's corporate culture. The newly organized DfE (Design for Environment) team developed an environmental rating tool for new products; created a materials database; and established training procedures. All of these activities helped to operationalize this new process at Herman Miller. The DfE tool for assessing product design was developed in conjunction with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), a design firm dedicated to revolutionizing the design of products and services worldwide. The database allows designers and engineers to select eco-intelligent materials when creating new products. The DfE principles have been widely accepted by product development teams due to the training sessions, which stress the importance of DfE principles as a design requirement. The combined efforts described above have all been critical to the successful integration of sustainability criteria into the new product development process at Herman Miller.
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