Hickory Chair Gains EFEC Certification

September 30, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on October 2008 Hickory Chair announced Monday that it has achieved certification under the American Home Furnishings Alliance’s Enhancing Furniture’s Environment Culture (EFEC) program. AHFA created EFEC to assist furniture companies in evaluating their operations to ensure continuous improvement of their environmental stewardship.

Hickory Chair is one of six furniture companies with a total of 14 manufacturing facilities that are now EFEC-certified. EFEC, a voluntary environmental management system for furniture manufacturers, requires certified companies to use management tools that help the company integrate environmental concerns into daily business practices resulting in better environmental performance and improved profitability for the company.

Hickory Chair also has an entry in the AFHA’s Sage Award competition. Winners will have demonstrated wisdom, experience and leadership within the home furnishings industry in the areas of sustainable business practices, social responsibility and profitable growth.

“Hickory Chair has demonstrated great visionary leadership in its efforts to move beyond compliance to effective environmental stewardship,” said Bill Perdue, AHFA’s vice president of environmental affairs. “By embracing the core values of EFEC, the company is creating a corporate culture that will emphasize sustainable business practices and focus on continuous improvement that will result in a significant reduction of its environmental footprint.”

Hickory Chair has developed an environmental stewardship program called EDGE (Employees Dedicated to Growth and Excellence) that guides all activities related to reducing the company’s environmental footprint and implementation of sustainable business practices.

President Jay Reardon said, “Our goal is to recycle and repurpose all of our waste materials. Through EDGE, our employees are looking at ways to redesign our processes such that waste is prevented from being created in the first place.”

Donna Musick, Hickory Chair’s environmental coordinator added, “The improvements generated by EDGE have made a tremendous difference on our ability to positively impact the environment, and can be grouped into three areas: better machine utilization which reduced energy consumption, process improvements that eliminated additional work or wasted materials, and the elimination of non-value added operations which improved productivity and reduced energy and materials usage, providing better values without compromise for our customers.”

Hickory Chair’s specific actions include:

• Domestic wood purchased from sustainable/renewable sources.

• Beginning in 2007, catalogs were printed by a firm that meets FSC (Forest Sustainability Council) certification and are printed on paper that also meets FSC certification. Other printed products came from well-managed forests and recyclable wood fiber.

• Many of the fabrics offered are made from 100 percent natural/organic fibers.

• Installation of new insulation and heat reflective roofing to reduce energy costs.

• Compressors have been updated to eliminate the need for a water cooling system, resulting in water conservation.

• Wood dust is the primary fuel source for their boiler for the manufacturing process and facility heating, thus avoiding putting more than 2000 tons of wood biomass in the landfill.