09/15/2026
Aeron’s sustainability story has always been one of material reduction. Think “less is more.” When the chair was first designed in 1994, the standard foam, fabric, and leather found in most office chairs at the time were nonexistent. In their place? A groundbreaking breathable material we called Pellicle. Over the next three decades, our engineers made tweaks and changes to the chair, like using recycled material in the chair, incorporating ocean-bound plastic*, and redesigning the chair’s aluminum base to reduce its material weight—and naturally lowering its carbon footprint. Still the same Aeron, unmatched comfort, and now—even better for the planet.**
As part of the company’s product decarbonization strategy, this combination of changes is estimated to reduce Aeron's global average embodied carbon footprint by 12%. Since 2022, through the integration of lower-carbon materials, Herman Miller has achieved carbon savings of over 7,000 metric tons.
*Aeron became the first chair in Herman Miller’s portfolio to be made with plastic that, had it not been diverted, otherwise could have made it into our oceans or landfills.
**By combining generative design with our deep engineering expertise, we’ve reduced the amount of material needed to create Aeron’s aluminum base by 0.84 kg (1.85 lbs)—without compromising its legendary durability or performance.
