Steelcase Earns Sustainable Forestry Certification, Pollution Prevention Award

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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Office furniture maker Steelcase has expanded its environmental credentials by receiving Forest Stewardship Council Chain of Custody Certification, showing its wood products come from sustainably-managed forests,

About nine percent of the company’s North American sales are wood products, and it uses millions of square feet of veneer, lumber and other wood a year.

According to Steelcase, which has also received Cradle to Cradle certification for about half of its products, most of the mills they purchase from are family owned and have been practicing sustainable forestry for years. Earlier this year Steelcase began looking into FSC Chain of Custody and received the certification this month.

The company not only utilizes wood from well-managed forests, but strives to prevent wood waste. Steelcase sorts out its wood by quality, using the higher quality, or best looking, pieces on the most-seen parts of products. It then uses the visually lower quality pieces in areas that are seen less, and anything left after that is utilized by other businesses, burned for energy or turned into landscaping mulch.

Steelcase is trying to alter people’s perception of quality wood, though, by holding continuing education courses on wood beauty and understanding wood, with plans to develop new courses on sustainable design and wood applications.

Steelcase Canada, a subsidiary of Grand Rapids, Mich.,-based Steelcase, recently won the Pollution Prevention Award from the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

The company’s Markham, Ontario, facility received the award for a four-year program that reduced 9.3 tons of volatile organic compound emissions and lowered energy use by more than 15 percent.

Starting in 2004, the facility began an energy conservation program focused on lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning. In that year, electricity was the company’s highest overhead cost, totaling more than $1 million a year. By the end of the energy-reduction initiative, Steelcase Canada shaved about $150,000 off its electricity expenses.

Around the same time, the company switched away from solvent-based paint to powder paint. By eliminating flammable solvents, the company reduced its insurance premiums and improved indoor air quality for workers by reducing volatile organic compound emissions.

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