The Best Green Designs from NeoCon 2011!

Thousands gathered in Chicago this week for <a href="http://inhabitat.com/the-best-green-designs-from-the-neocon-worlds-trade-fair/">NeoCon</a>, an annual expo where designers and architects get to see the latest and greatest furniture and fixtures for office, hospitality, healthcare, and more. The three day event hosts close to a thousand exhibitors inside the <a href="http://www.mmart.com/about/themerchandisemart/">Merchandise Mart</a>, the world's largest Leed-EB certified commercial building, and hundreds more in the showroom in the surrounding neighborhood. The show boasts an overwhelming amount of chairs, desks, lights and fixtures, so we've picked out the cream of the green crop to share with you.

<a href="http://myturnstone.com/">Turnstone</a> is a modern and youthful brand from <a href="http://www.steelcase.com/en/">Steelcase</a> office furnishing. Their newest office system include bent sheet metal bike and skateboard storage racks complete with coat hooks, and a planter. The recycable metal is powdercoated, which is a coating process that does not produce off gassed VOC's and allows unused powder to be reused. The rack pairs with stylish desk, storage and seating systems that we guarantee you will want to beg your boss for.

The Astra LED task lamps from <a href="http://www.workriteergo.com/products/Astra.asp">Workrite Ergonomics</a> are playful, adjustable, and give and nice even glow across your work area. These recyclable aluminum energy efficient lamps add a friendly look to your desk, without wasting power. They are dimmable, and also have a passive infrared sensor on the bending arm, so they will turn off automatically when no one is around.

The Sayl task chair from industry leader Herman Miller was displayed along with some of the designer Yves Behar's early models and inspirational drawings of suspension bridges. The chair is MBDC Cradle to Cradle certified, as well as Green Guard certified. It does not contain PVC, and is 95% recyclable.

Student <a href="http://www.coroflot.com/darek_piech">Darek Piech</a> from Univerity of Illinois Chicago was chosen by Herman Miller to show his <a href="http://www.coroflot.com/darek_piech/Table-Lamps">recycled book shade table lamp</a> in a NeoCon special exhibition. Among the products shown in this <a href="http://www.neocon.com/attractions/exhibits/">Furniture Revolution</a> special show, Piech's lamp stood out with its elegant woven shade glowing in front of an LED light source.

Sold as a DIY kit, the <a href="http://studio.craightonberman.com/#971341/COIL-LAMP">Coil Lamp,</a> from Chicago Designer Craighton Berman, provides you with the pieces to make you own fixture by simply using electrical cord and a socket. The fixture uses 100ft of extension cord wrapped around an acrylic form.

<a href="http://www.scad.edu/">Savannah College of Art and Design</a>’s furniture design department teamed up with building products manufacturer <a href="http://www.chbriggs.com/index.html">C.H. Briggs</a> to create innovative solutions using unique materials. SCAD M.F.A. furniture design student <a href="http://www.scad.edu/_cs_apps/ajaxProxy.cfm?bean=SCADDeptsSevice&amp;method=getDepartmentalPortfolioHTML&amp;department=Furniture%20Design">Matt Gray</a> created the Bench Rack, made from bent tubing DuPont™ <a href="http://www2.dupont.com/Corian_Global_Landing/en_US/index.html">Corian</a>®. The final model of this secure bicycle storage combined with seating was locally fabricated by <a href="http://www.surfacesolutionssav.com/">Surface Solutions</a>.

Fantastic cute and sustainably sourced, these wooden children's chairs from<a href="http://www.tmcfurniture.com/Environmental_Statement.htm"> TMC Furniture</a>'s collection made you want to sit and play all day. Locally produced in Ann Arbor Michigan, TMC's line of kids products include tables, seating, and learning boards. Fun graphics are cut into or graphically applied to the plywood with options of non-toxic, water-based stains.

So many water bottles, and not enough uses for them! That must be what manufacturer <a href="http://www.deflecto.com/chairmats/">Deflect-o</a> must have been thinking when they created a line of chairmats made entirely from this waste plastic material. Chairmats are used under desk task chairs to allow them to roll easily and to extend the life of carpeting.

Architectural materials manufacturer <a href="http://www.3-form.com/">3Form</a> has had sustainable options in their line for some time, but they have raised the bar with their "<a href="http://www.3-form.com/materials-100_percent.php">100 Percent</a>" offering. These resin panel made from 100% post-consumer recycled high density polyethylene. That means over 1000 milk bottles going into each panel.