C.R. Laine first to earn Sustainable by Design status
By Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, October 6, 2008
HIGH POINT — Upholstery manufacturer C.R. Laine is the first company to achieve Sustainable by Design environmental certification from the American Home Furnishings Alliance.
C.R. Laine will now be able to include a “Sustainable by Design AHFA Certified” logo in its marketing materials.
The company also will be promoted on the trade organization's consumer Web site, www.findyourfurniture.com, in a new section designed to educate consumers about environmentally friendly companies and products in the home furnishings industry.
Information from C.R. Laine's Sustainable by Design audit process, and from other companies that pass the audit, will be listed under a Member Certification tab on the Sustainable by Design Web site at http://sustainablebydesign.us.
Among the first steps in C.R. Laine's certification process was to have its headquarters and manufacturing facility registered under AHFA's environmental management system, called Enhancing Furniture's Environmental Culture or EFEC.
“At the heart of EFEC is a corporate culture of conservation and environmental stewardship,” said Bill Perdue, AHFA vice president. “Sustainable by Design extends that culture throughout a company's entire supply chain.”
The EFEC program requires a company to analyze the environmental impact of its processes, raw materials and finished products at its facilities.
To attain Sustainable by Design certification, C.R. Laine was required to evaluate its corporate environmental footprint and its global climate impact. It established numerical goals and created a system for evaluating its annual achievements and setting new goals.
As part of the certification process, in the past nine months the company made improvements that included reducing energy consumption by 8%, reducing fresh water consumption by 5% and reducing waste disposal costs by 20%, partly by recycling and repurposing of fabric, foam, cardboard, metal and wood scraps.
“As a family-owned and operated company, we have always been committed to the preservation of the environment and community for future generations,” said President and CEO Sonny Roseman Jr.
“Our nine-month journey through the Sustainable by Design certification process provided us with a realistic structure for implementing sustainable business practices into our everyday processes,” he said. “It has equipped us for a future of continuous environmental improvement.”
