Steve Kooy leads BIFMA’s Health and Sustainability programs including-standard setting, advocacy, and outreach. Currently, Steve is working with BIFMA members on three standards: creating the Furniture Surfaces: Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting standard, completing the BIFMA X10.1 Ergonomics standard, and revising the BIFMA e3 Sustainability standard.

As a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Civil/Environmental Engineering program, Steve has more than 15 years of experience as a sustainability professional in the furniture industry. Prior to joining BIFMA, Steve worked in sales and business development for Intertek – a third-party auditor, certifier, and test lab. In this role, he worked with global furniture clients to properly test and certify products to electrical, mechanical, and environmental standards.
Steve served as Haworth’s Global Sustainability/Open Innovation Manager for many years as the built environment’s interest in green building flourished. Highlights at Haworth included: creating and driving well-being initiatives, setting sustainable design criteria for cleaner chemistry and responsible supply chains, and pursuing product certifications. WELL and LEED experience includes managing or co-managing LEED certification projects in Asia, Europe, and North America as well as piloting the WELL certification in Shanghai and Los Angeles.

Dr. Lauren Gant, PhD, CPE, WELL AP is a Senior Workplace Advisory Manager at HNI. Lauren’s background in biomedical engineering allows her to apply human factors and ergonomics principles to the design of office furniture, and to research emerging trends in the office environment.
Lauren is highly involved in product development and in research of emerging trends. Her goal is to ensure that the products we produce encourage healthy postures, promote productivity, and that are intuitive to use correctly for a broad spectrum of worker types, sizes, and capabilities.
Lauren is also involved in education for our clients and end users. Lauren has taught engineering and ergonomics courses at the university level, has conducted extensive research in the field of ergonomics, and holds a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Iowa. Lauren is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and is a Certified Professional Ergonomist, granted by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics. Lauren is also a WELL Accredited Professional, a WELL Advisor, and a Fitwel Ambassador, and is qualified to provide guidance regarding health and wellness in the built environment.