HON
THINKS GREEN:
ENHANCES COMMITMENT
TO SUSTAINABILITY WITH PROGRAMS,
PROCESSES
AND PRODUCTS
Leading Office
Furniture Manufacturer Has
Long History
of Environmental Responsibility
Muscatine, IA – April
15, 2008 – Sustainability and
environmental responsibility are increasingly important issues
in today’s society. At The HON Company, the second-largest
office furniture manufacturer in North America, conserving raw
materials is not a new concept. In fact, it’s something
the company has been doing since its inception.
“More than fifty years ago, HON made recipe card boxes
from pieces of scrap metal generated from our contract business,” says
Mindy Billingsley, environmental marketing manager. “Today,
we practice one of the industry’s strongest and most comprehensive
programs to conserve raw materials and reduce waste.”
Programs and Processes
Beyond HON’s dedication to sustainability in product design,
the company also has a number of programs in place to save the
Earth’s resources. Having adopted the old adage, “waste
not, want not,” back in 1947, it remains part of HON’s
DNA and has shaped the company’s ongoing pursuit of environmental
stewardship.
HON’s
lean, green manufacturing approach includes, but isn’t
limited to, the following activities:
• |
“Treecycling” – HON
uses post-consumer wood waste versus newly harvested
wood for many seating components. This is done through
a compression molding process called “comold,” which
saves up to 5,000 acres of virgin forests and diverts
nearly 10,000 tons of wood waste from landfills every
year.
|
• |
“Shoddy” – HON
recycles more than 300 bales of fabric scraps and keeps
nearly 400,000 pounds of fabric waste out of landfills
in a year. This is accomplished by collecting scrap
fabric and turning it over to a company that shreds
it for use in “shoddy,” a fibrous material
predominantly used in the automotive industry as liner
in car trunks.
|
• |
Paint
Re-Use – The
company reuses more than 30,000 gallons of oversprayed
paint on the inside of metal storage.
|
• |
Bulk
Packaging – For years, The HON Company has sought
to reduce the amount of packaging material delivered
to customer sites. Its bulk packaging option uses fewer
raw materials and decreases the amount of shipping materials
customers have to recycle or send to landfills.
|
• |
Sawdust
Diversion – In 2006, HON manufacturing
locations diverted more than 2,300 tons of sawdust
from landfills, making it available for use as an alternative
fuel source. |
Products
The HON Company constantly seeks ways to build sustainability in its many product lines, as well.
In June of 2007, The HON Company revolutionized the office furniture
industry by introducing Nature Core™, an alternative to
the traditional “filler” used inside cubicle walls.
Nature Core is the first of its kind for the office furniture
industry, and is made primarily from kenaf, a natural, sustainable
crop that grows very quickly and replenishes itself every four
to six months.
HON’s commitment to sustainable products also benefits
the quality of the air we breathe. In 2006, The HON Company became
the first office furniture manufacturer to have products certified
by the Indoor Advantage™ program developed by Scientific
Certification Systems (SCS), a third-party auditor and certifier
of environmental and sustainability claims which subjects products
to the most rigorous indoor air quality standards in the United
States. To date, more than 70 HON product lines have been certified
by SCS.
What’s more, most HON products can help contribute toward
a number of credits in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System™. LEED
is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction
and operation of high-performance green buildings.
“We embarked upon our journey more than 60 years ago,
and we continue to respect the finite nature of the Earth’s
resources,” Billingsley says. “We’ve made great
progress in reducing our impact on the environment, but we still
have much more to do. We’ll keep striving for improvement
anywhere and everywhere we can.
For
more information about The HON Company’s
sustainability initiatives, visit www.HONthinksgreen.com.
###
About The HON Company
The HON Company is a leader in the design and manufacturing
of workplace furniture including chairs, files, panel systems,
and desks. Headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa, The HON Company
has numerous manufacturing facilities strategically located
throughout the United States, and markets its products
through a nationwide network of dealers and retailers.
For more information please visit www.HON.com.
Contact
Betsy Hoye
Advertising & Public Relations Manager
563.272.5690
HoyeB@honcompany.com
Jennifer Allanson or Kristi Stolarski
Robert Falls & Co. Public Relations
216.696.0229
jallanson@robertfalls.com or
kstolarski@robertfalls.com
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