City Furniture Pledges to Become Carbon Neutral by 2040

April 24, 2019  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

City’s 2040 Green Promise goal encompasses the company’s showrooms, warehouses and offices, plus its statewide delivery fleet and massive recycling initiatives, according to company President Andrew Koenig.

The firm already has 240,000 square feet of LEED-certified showroom space, and is converting its fleet of delivery trucks to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of relying on diesel fuel. In-house recycling equipment annually keeps 6 million pounds of cardboard, plastic and Styrofoam waste out of landfills.  

“Our purpose has always been to enrich people’s lives and make the world a better place,” said Koenig.  “We’re all about helping people create and take care of home, and there’s no home that needs more care than our planet. For us that means investing long-term in strategic innovations that reduce our carbon footprint, improve operations and create a greener future.”

While corporate giants including Bank of America, Starbucks and dozens of other global brands are on record as moving toward carbon neutrality, City Furniture is an early leader among regional firms making a time-certain pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

“In addition to bringing them great values, style and craftsmanship, our customers expect us to lead positive change as stewards in the communities and environments we serve,” Koenig said. “With fresh ideas and by taking intelligent risks, Florida companies can create scalable green approaches, from buildings and transportation, to large-scale recycling.”

Currently operating six Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified showrooms, City Furniture will double its green-designed showroom area to 460,000 square feet by the end of this year, with the opening of two superstores in the Florida market.

“By 2040, we plan to run many showrooms on renewable energy, which will offset our electric use,” added Koenig. The company’s 29-store network continues growing in Southeast, Southwest and Central Florida.

Heading City Furniture’s kaizen continuous improvement initiatives, Koenig is overseeing transformation of the company’s delivery fleet from trucks running on diesel to USA-produced CNG, including a $1.4 million investment in a CNG fueling station at the 900,000-square-foot headquarters and main distribution center in Tamarac, Fla.   

The retailer has converted most of its 100-truck fleet, logging over 12 million miles with the new, clean-running delivery trucks since 2014 – a change that cut greenhouse emissions by 45 percent, while saving more than 60 percent on fuel costs.  Continuing to operate the industry’s greenest fleet, Koenig’s team expects delivery of five all-electric Tesla Semi trucks in the near future.

City Furniture also took an early industry lead on recycling and currently recycles 98 percent of its operational waste stream. Each year the recycling center at the headquarters campus condenses 5.5 million pounds of cardboard and 500,000 pounds of plastic and Styrofoam.

City Furniture has earned honors including Top 50 Greenest Fleets in the U.S. each year since 2015, Clean Cities Coalition Awards and the 2018 national Industry Leadership Award from the Southeast Diesel Collaborative, part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program.

“We encourage other Florida companies to step up their sustainability planning and to join us in sharing best practices,” Koenig said. “Twenty years isn’t much time to accomplish all that’s needed for fast-growing companies to achieve carbon neutral status. Florida’s economic and environmental future will be far better for it.”