The awards ceremony to celebrate and recognize Good Industrial Design (Goed Industrieel Ontwerp - GIO) took place last Friday in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Desso received two recognition awards, both for product innovations that were developed in 2010: DESSO AirMaster® - the carpet that cleans the air, and DESSO EcoBase® - the carpet backing that enabled the first Cradle to Cradle® Silver Certification for an entire carpet tile product, which is 100% safely recyclable.
The GIO awards have been recognizing excellent Dutch design for 25 years, and were awarded this year at the opening of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the largest design event in the Netherlands. Ludwig Cammaert (Manager Design & Technical Developments) and Marloes Jongen (Designer at Desso Design) were both present at the awards ceremony.
The recognition is known for being the quality mark for good industrial design in the Netherlands, and is judged and awarded by an independent panel of experts. To be eligible for this recognition, a product must be more than just aesthetically pleasing. Functionality, innovativeness, originality and material choice are all extremely important factors. According to the jury, the innovative products from Desso (AirMaster® and EcoBase®) both easily met these criterion.
The GIO recognition award - comparable to the American Idea Award and the German Red Dot and iF-Award - is a highly sought after acknowledgement of the professionalism of designer and project manager alike. The submissions from Desso were judged in the category 'commercial facilities' by an independent panel of industry experts, led by Professor Dr. Ir. Wim Poelman. A GIO recognition award reinforces the credibility and recognition of a product, and increases it's chances of success on the market.
Alexander Collot d'Escury, CCO Desso, is very happy with this result: "This award is a fantastic recognition of our efforts to create high quality, value-added products that positively impact on our people, planet and profit. Both DESSO AirMaster® and DESSO EcoBase® are helping us to revolutionize the carpet industry and show consumers just how much carpet can positively effect their health and environment."
About the innovations:
DESSO AirMaster®
A healthy air quality inside buildings is essential, as most people spend most of the day indoors. In fact, people with a full-time office job spend 1,880 hours a year on average inside their office. The German asthma foundation DAAB has for some time been pointing out that the harmful effects of particulate matter are greatly reduced if carpeting is chosen as indoor floor covering instead of hard floor covering. A healthy indoor climate is currently high on the political agenda, as is evident from the announcement of an emergency measure in January by State Secretary Dijksma (Education, Culture and Science) to improve the indoor air quality at schools. This came in response to a study by the Municipal Health Service (GGD) which showed that the indoor climate at schools is far below standard. The new type of carpet, called AirMaster®, is eight times more effective in trapping particulate matter than hard floors and four times more effective than a standard carpet. This was the conclusion of a study conducted by the independent German testing institute GUI*. AirMaster® guarantees a significant improvement of the indoor climate and reduces the risk of health-related problems.
DESSO EcoBase®
DESSO EcoBase® carpet backing is environmentally wholesome and 100% safely recyclable. With this launch, Desso has gained the aspired Cradle to Cradle® Silver Certification, reaching a level where 97% of all the materials used are positively defined** according to the Cradle to Cradle® principles. Desso is the only carpet tile manufacturer in the world to have achieved Cradle to Cradle® Silver Certification for an entire carpet tile product (for more information, visit: www.mbdc.com). A true example of eco-innovation, EcoBase® is made from positively defined materials that are safe to recycle.
*GUI is an independent German testing institute that specialises in analysing indoor and outdoor air quality and conducting studies at the request of parties such as the German Allergy and Asthma Association (DAAB). GUI carried out a study to compare AirMaster® with a standard PVC hard floor and a standard structured loop-pile carpet. The test used particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 10μm (PM10 and smaller).
** Positively defined = all ingredients have been assessed as either Green (optimal) or Yellow (tolerable)
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