HÅG ASA has been chosen as the supplier of office chairs for Telenor's new headquarters at Fornebu. The contract involves the supply of about 8500 office chairs, making it Norway's largest single delivery to date. The choice of HÅG was based on the price of the chairs, their ergonomic features, their flexibility and – not the least – their environmental qualities. Environmental requirements in connection with purchasing are an important element of Telenor's environmental efforts.
To be environmentally efficient, purchasing must involve a comparison of costs and environmental impact. Telenor has prepared a special corporate procedure for environmentally efficient purchasing. There is normally a close connection between a product's life-cycle costs and its environmental impact. For example, a PC with low electrical consumption and otherwise high environmental quality could give lower life-cycle costs than a PC which is cheaper to purchase but consumes more electrical power. Hence, environmental considerations introduce a long-term perspective to purchasing, and it is this perspective which in time can save money for the business.
In addition to the purchasing procedure, questionnaires have been prepared, to be used in taking envirnomental issues into account in connection with purchasing. These questionnaires cover important environmental parameters and place strict requirements both on the environmental work done by potential suppliers and on the actual products they can supply.
There was keen international competition to supply office chairs for Telenor's new building at Fornebu. One of the stipulated environmental requirements involved the possibility of recycling individual component parts of the chairs – and HÅG satisfied this requirement by a clear margin. The chair manufacturer from Røros has been working for a long time with recycled raw materials and preparation for re-use and recycling, and the company has demonstrated that they take the environmental challenges seriously.
Deliveries from HÅG's factory in Røros will commence in the third quarter of 2001 and will take place in the form of four large deliveries, one every three months. The value of the contract is approximately NOK 20 million. Peter Opsvik is responsible for the design of the chairs, which are to be manufactured in two different series.
