Certification Process
for products

Making quality visible

Products from the following categories are eligible for certification:

  • Office chairs
  • Visitor chairs and conference chairs
  • Swivel chairs for communication areas and mobile working from home
     
  • Office desks
  • Visitor tables and conference tables
  • Desks for mobile working from home
     
  • Office pedestals
  • Office cabinets and shelves
  • Pharmacy cabinets
  • Partitions

Basic requirements

Quality Office products are certified according to the Guideline L-Q 2022. All products must meet the requirements for safety, ergonomics, functionality, flexibility, durability and sustainability. Additionally, the requirements for an accompanying service must be fulfilled. If the product includes electrically powered installations, the requirements of the guideline “Elektrische Installation von Büromöbeln” (Compendium of approved rules for electrical installation in office furniture) have to be met. This already has to be taken into account during GS certification.

APPLICANT

Manufacturers can apply for certification of their office furnishing products. Certification languages are German or English.

Certification committee

The “Quality Office Forum Furniture and Equipment” is commissioned for the quality certification. It consists of at least five impartial experts who are capable of judging the quality of office furnishings and office furnishing services and are in no way associated with the company and product to be certified.

Process of certification

  • Application using application form, self-assessment, and additional documents as necessary 
  • Check of the documents submitted 
  • If necessary, clarification of open questions and inspection of the original sample and the production facility
  • If a positive decision is made, the certificate is issued and the product entered into the product database

Documents for initial certifications

The complete application for the initial certification of a product consists of:

  • Application for certification “Products”
  • Self-assessment
  • Copies of a current GS mark and all of the related test reports
    The GS mark must be valid for at least 12 more months.
  • Certificates (copies) of quality management, sustainability management and eco-labels.
  • Product information, e.g. in the shape of brochures or price lists
    The submitted documents must make it possible to gain an overview of the respective product programme.
  • 1–5 product photos for the entry in the product database
    Format: preferably 1200 x 1562 px or 600 x 781 px
    File format: PNG or JPG

Certification extensions and name changes

Products that have not changed technologically since the initial certification on basis of the Guideline L-Q 2022 can generally have their certification extended in an abbreviated procedure. The following documents are needed for this process:

  • Application for certificate extension “Products”,
    see below “Download documents”
  • Copies of a current GS mark and the related test reports
    The GS mark must be valid for at least 12 more months.

If a certified product only has its name changed, you can apply to have the Quality Office certificate changed accordingly.

The documents can be sent by post or attached to an e-mail as a PDF file.
Please send them to:

Qualitätsforum Büroeinrichtungen
c/o Industrieverband Büro und Arbeitswelt e.V. (IBA)
Bierstadter Straße 39
65189 Wiesbaden, Germany
info@quality-office.org

Duration

The certificates are valid for up to three years from the date it was issued. If the submitted GS mark expires before this date, the validity of the Quality Office certificate ends at the same time.

Costs

  • Per product category: 480 € + VAT
  • Certificate extensions: 30 € + VAT

If further costs arise, the applicant will be informed beforehand.

For members of the IBA, funding is provided by the association.

Statutes

You can find further information about Quality Office certifications in the statutes.