CPSC official to address AHFA's Sustainability Summit
Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, February 13, 2012
HIGH POINT — Matthew Howsare, chief of staff for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, is among those who will address furniture industry issues at the 2012 Sustainability Summit next week in Raleigh, N.C.
The American Home Furnishings Alliance's annual program, which runs Feb. 22-23, provides marketing intelligence for companies developing eco-friendly home furnishings.
Registration remains open for the summit and companies don't have to be AHFA members to attend.
Howsare's talk will include an update on federal upholstered furniture flammability standards and the growing environmental backlash on flame retardant chemicals. The CPSC is the federal agency responsible for the safety of consumer goods.
This year's summit theme is Racing Beyond Expectations: Best Practices Fueling the Industry's Sustainability Successes.
It opens with keynote speaker Michael Lynch, managing director of NASCAR Green Innovation. Lynch has built one of the largest recycling program in sports, diverting more than 1,000 tons of material from landfills in 2011. The program has introduced biofuels to NASCAR and helped raise awareness of environmentalism among the sport's massive audience.
Among the first day presenters are:
• Sam Harrington, co-founder of Ecovative, whose Green Island, N.Y., manufacturing facility a produces cotton-seed hull and mushroom root packaging materials. Contract office supplier Steelcase is using Ecovative's packaging to replace expanded polystyrene previously used to ship furniture at the same cost but with less environmental impact.
• Thomas Bean, former sustainability team manager for Hickory Springs Mfg. who formed his own company last year, EarthWay Global, to tackle solutions to industry waste challenges from packaging to foam and fabric waste. He'll present "Powering toward Zero Waste: Ramping Up Recycling."
• Garrett Tinsman, executive vice president for operations Sauder Woodworking, who recently completed the company's first annual Sustainability Report. Sauder was the winner of the AHFA's and Cargill's BiOH polyols 2011 Sage Award, which recognizes environmental excellence in home furnishings.
For a full listing of the summit's presentations and registration details, visit http://www.ahfa.us/events/events.asp.
The event will take place at the Renaissance Raleigh North Hills Hotel. The cost is $325 for AHFA members and $500 for non-members. The AHFA rate is also available to members of the Sustainable Furnishings Council.
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