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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