Franklin Corp. Implements EFEC

March 21, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Green on March 22, 2011 Upholstered furniture maker Franklin Corp. has implemented the home furnishings industry's EFEC environmental management system at its Houston, Miss., facility.

EFEC--or "Enhancing Furniture€™s Environmental Culture"--is a voluntary program created for the residential furniture industry by the American Home Furnishings Alliance. Franklin implemented EFEC at the 1.1 million-square-foot Houston plant, which also includes the company's corporate headquarters.

To achieve EFEC registration, companies must: improve management of resources and raw materials; reduce energy and water consumption; reduce waste disposal and associated costs; and increase recycling efforts.

"Every viable business today is seeking ways to drive down costs in work processes and raw material usage," said Franklin Chairman and CEO Hassell Franklin. "It just makes sense to implement a program to measure and reduce (our) environmental impact. EFEC was tailor-made for not only reducing solid waste and water usage in our facilities, but also for increasing our employees€™ awareness of environmental issues."

Since initiating implementation of the EFEC program at the beginning of 2010, the Houston facility has reduced its landfill waste by 14 percent despite working more hours in 2010 than 2009.

"We achieved this by reusing many items in our facility, recycling as many items as possible, and making a push to bale all scrap cardboard throughout the facility," said Carl Daniel, safety and environmental director and head of the EFEC management team. By baling 21 percent more cardboard in 2010 over 2009, the company not only reduced its waste-to-landfill but also generated recycling revenue.

"Franklin is also proud of its truck fleet's fuel economy," Daniel continued. "Our logistics department challenged our drivers to reach a 6.5 mile per gallon goal. New trucks with emission control systems designed to improve fuel efficiency and reduce the amount of exhaust were very instrumental in helping our fleet achieve their goal."

In 2011, the Franklin EFEC team is shifting its focus to energy consumption and exploring new ways to improve energy efficiency, as well as ways to reduce water usage.

"The most challenging part of our EFEC journey has been educating our employees," Daniel said. "We have over 1,200 employees here at Franklin, and educating them about EFEC proved to be a daunting task. However, we worked hard using handouts, weekly communication meetings, posters and even the recycling stations to give our employees an idea of the importance of being 'green' both at work and at home."

EFEC--which requires participants to make continual improvements in order to retain their registration--has been implemented at 50 different locations, including factories, warehouses and headquarters buildings, in 11 states.