Steelcase

“Sustainability is one of today’s fundamental business challenges – and our inspiration. Everyday our team works to create maximum value from our available assets and be catalysts for good.” – Steelcase

Working Together

Steelcase Inc. prides itself in leading the way towards creating the most sustainable office furniture and product supply chain possible. They approached us in May 2009 to replace their petrochemical based foam packaging. Throughout this development cycle, we’ve worked closely with Steelcase’s packaging engineers, sustainability experts, test labs, and marketing team to clear any doubts about our bio-composite materials. Ecovative was able to meet and exceed Steelcase’s stringent requirements for performance, environmental responsibility, and cost.

Rigorous Development

We spent a year working with Steelcase’s test labs, 3rd party packaging test facilities, and even an expert with a PhD in cotton gin byproducts to fine tune the perfect formulation of packaging for this challenging application. Their first concern was that the packaging might soften up or rot due to environmental conditions. Steelcase tested Mushroom® Packaging at extreme temperatures and even simulated this high moisture condition, and it passed with no problems. Additionally, Ecovative’s technology actually outperformed the EPP (expanded polypropylene) packaging that Steelcase was previously using for vibration and drop testing.

People, Planet, Profit

Not only is this material high performance, grown in the USA, and ecologically sensible, but it makes economic sense too. We were able to compete on price with the EPP packaging that Steelcase has been using. We’ve been producing thousands of packaging buffers for Steelcase’s ready to assemble furniture, and we’re looking forward to helping them eliminate all of their petrochemical foams!