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Hickory Chair Achieves Sustainable by Design Designation

By Home Furnishings Business in Green on April 18, 2010

Hickory Chair Furniture Co., Hickory, N.C., achieved Sustainable by Design environmental certification from the American Home Furnishings Alliance last week.

Hickory Chair has been making measurable environmental improvements at its Hickory, N.C., manufacturing facility since 1997, when the company instituted its EDGE (Employees Dedicated to Growth and Excellence) continuous improvement initiative.

"Through EDGE, our initial goal was to recycle and repurpose all of our waste materials," said Hickory Chair President Jay Reardon. "As we made great progress in our recycling and repurposing efforts, we realized that we needed to design the waste out of the process from the beginning."

In 2008, Hickory Chair entered AHFA's voluntary environmental management program, EFEC (Enhancing Furniture's Environmental Culture), which requires companies to adopt a culture of environmental stewardship by showing improvements in management of resources and raw materials; reductions in energy and water consumption; and reductions in waste disposal and associated costs.

Donna Musick, Hickory Chair's environmental coordinator, says the company's improvements fell into three key areas: better machine utilization, which reduced energy consumption; process improvements, which eliminated additional work and wasted materials; and eliminating non-value added operations, which improved productivity and reduced energy and materials usage.

Hickory Chair earned its EFEC registration in September 2008. Three months later the company was awarded the industry's first Sage Award. The program, which is sponsored by AHFA and Cargill's BiOH polyols business unit, recognizes home furnishings companies that are environmental leaders.

Next the company took on Sustainable by Design certification. To pass its SBD audit, Hickory Chair was required to conduct a rigorous evaluation of its corporate environmental footprint, as well as its global climate impact. For each key area on a checklist, Hickory Chair established numerical goals and a system for evaluating annual achievement and establishing new goals. These key areas include: supply chain management, including assisting suppliers worldwide in the development and implementation of sustainability programs; energy conservation, water conservation, recycling and solid/hazardous waste minimization; use of low VOC/low HAP coatings, certified lumber, low-emitting UF resins; greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint.

As Hickory Chair worked its way through the checklist in 2009, the company continued reducing landfill waste, which fell by 178 tons in 2007 and another 125 tons in 2008. A wood grinder purchased in 2008 has improved use of wood scrap as boiler fuel and resulted in a $450,000 savings in fuel oil expenses during its first year of operation.

"Hickory Chair has implemented these and many more effective environmental programs and practices while growing its profitability," said Reardon, who added that the company has only increased prices once in the past eight years, despite initiating these programs. "We believe people care about where and how furnishings for their homes are made. In addition, we feel that there is a growing interest in companies who are trying to reduce their environmental footprint."

Last week Hickory Chair's documentation of all its systems and measures was audited by the Sustainable by Design Board of Examiners. The company will be subject to an annual maintenance audit in order to maintain its SBD certification.

In addition to Hickory Chair, C.R. Laine, Kincaid Furniture, American Drew and Lea Industries have all achieved Sustainable by Design certification.



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