Jeffrey Olsen has been appointed joint committee chair of the ANSI/BIFMA e3 Furniture Sustainability Standard. As chair, Mr. Olsen will manage the joint committee, act as liaison between the committee and the NSF International Council for Public Health Consultants (CPHC), adjudicate issues in the balloting and public review processes, and participate in appeals.

Developed in 2008, the ANSI/BIFMA e3 Furniture Sustainability Standard establishes performance criteria addressing environmental and social impacts throughout the supply chain. NSF International facilitated development of the standard according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process for developing and maintaining voluntary consensus standards.

Olsen recently retired from state employment after 38 years of service to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where he most recently served as Director of the Office of Sustainability for Government Operations. He also worked for the Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Waste Management where he focused on the development of beneficial uses for organic waste, and prior to that served as Director of the Office of Environmental Operations for the Pennsylvania National Guard. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology from Juniata College and a Master of Environmental Pollution Control from Pennsylvania State University. He currently is Director of Emergency Medical Services Training at the local community college in Northeastern Pennsylvania. “Mr. Olsen has successfully facilitated the consensus process with several joint committees. We are thrilled to see him step into this new leadership role with the ANSI/BIFMA e3 committee,” said Jessica Evans, Director of Standards at NSF International.

Brad Miller, Director of Advocacy and Sustainability for the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), added “Jeffrey has a variety of experiences that will come in handy. From his service in state government to being at the helm of several other pioneering sustainability standards in various sectors, he is quite skilled in the continuous maintenance process for these kinds of standards and well versed in the dynamics of a successful multi-stakeholder process.”

Mr. Olsen replaces Norman Christopher who served as chair for 5 years. Norman has retired from his position of Executive Director for the Office of Sustainability Practices at Grand Valley State University and stepped down as chair following the successful completion and publication of the ANSI/BIFMA e3- 2019 version of the standard.