40/4 lounge was stated the most environmental-friendly chair at a GIGA challenge

HOWE took part in a product sustainability competition - "The GIGA Challenge" - at the HiDesign Asia event in November 2011 with the 40/4 lounge chair.
And HOWE won this competition and was stated the most environmental-friendly chair. The acknowledged Canadian Architect, Raefer Wallis, elected the 40/4 lounge chair as winner of The GIGA Challenge at the lecture he gave at the event, because as he has said "My job is to bring the best materials to the attention of others... and right now, HOWE is leading the pack." HOWE's furniture was brought to the stage for the listeners to see and feel afterwards.

Raefer Wallis is founder of GIGA, the organization behind this competition. Prior to the HiDesign, the GIGA team made a 'deep dive' into the 40/4 lounge chair and other competing furniture in order to disclose the ecological impacts of the products. Besides winning the competition, the 40/4 lounge chair is now also to be found transparently ranked as number three in GIGA's database, GIGABASE, on the basis of a chemical screening and according to a long list of criteria, ranking results and actionable steps.

GIGA's intention with this database is to help bring the best materials to the attention of its users - a.o. designers, architects, manufacturers, consultants, distributors.Click here and you will find the 40/4 lounge chair in the GIGABASE in good company of furniture from Herman Miller, Haworth, Steelcase, Knoll a.o.
Raefer Wallis has afterwards stated : "I loved the 40/4 before, I love it even more now..." and "To be quite frank, very few manufacturers understand their own product the way HOWE does...".