Sustainability Mission - Local
We celebrate four decades of manufacturing exquisite products from around the globe and make every effort to focus on our Sustainability Statement. This starts with the myriad improvements we have made at our headquarters in High Point, North Carolina. From replacing antiquated lighting with energy efficient LEDs, to upgrading our electrical, water, hvac and other power-hungry systems, to our constantly improving programs for how we recycle our shipping materials, to how we care for the products and to ensure we minimize waste.
Below we have highlighted just a handful of ways we feel we are making a positive impact locally. From our consideration of materials and operational efficiencies to our Adopt a Street initiative.
Energy Efficient Lighting: We replaced over 2000 fluorescent bulbs in our multi-building, 400,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center. This was engineered and accomplished by ERD Industrial Electronic Repair–a true leader in the community. On June 1st, 2017, we hosted a “Waste Not Watt Not” event where we destroyed thousands of our old fluorescent bulbs using a custom rig provided by Air Cycle Corporation that responsibly caught all offgassing that would have occurred if the bulbs were simply thrown into a dumpster.
Adopt a Street: On June 1st, 2017 we officially adopted Finch Avenue in High Point, NC as part of the city-wide cleanup program. We are now responsible for the care and maintenance of the street which we are headquartered on, and we kicked off the campaign with a major event that was picked up by all the local news channels. We had Rebecca Coplin, the High Point Beautification Supervisor, and Greg Demko, the City Manager, come out and help kick things off. We couldn’t be more excited about the enthusiasm as our nearly 50 employees showed for the event and looked forward to inspiring others around the community to get involved. We are the first furniture company in the City of High Point to join the Adopt a Street program and hope others will soon join in. To learn more click: here
Recycling Program: We work with local Waste Management to coordinate daily pickup of our used cardboards. The program is a win-win. They get to repurpose our cardboard materials and we get paid for them picking it up.
Bubble Wrap: Even the way we use bubble wrap considers the environment. We work with Atlantic Packaging to receive compact reams of unfilled bubble wrap. Think of it like plastic wrap on a roll but without the bubbles. We have a special machine that creates bubble wrap on site, and on demand. Previously we worked with giant reams of already air-filled bubble wrap which was inefficient to ship to us, requiring more trucks to transport the wrap, and took up a lot of space in our warehouse. With this new system we save space and create what we need, and when we need it!
Finishing Department: We sell furniture of all shapes and sizes, including our award-winning, eco-friendly Origins Collection, made of large, live-edge materials for slabs, tables and consoles. These tables require deluxe finishes and we work with water-based stains with low VOC sealers and topcoats to ensure minimal environmental impact. Even our spray equipment is considered for maximum yield of surface coverage, resulting in dramatic reduction of the material required to finish each piece.
Systems Efficiencies: We work hard to minimize waste in every way possible. That means looking at how we pack, how product moves throughout the facility, and even how we store and maintain our inventory. We consider it a big inefficiency when products get damaged by mishandling, or when the moisture content of incoming containers from the factory are too high. We have built special dehumidifying rooms in our warehouse in order to quickly bring down moisture contents to ensure our products are efficiently received. Even the loading dock we added to the 2nd floor has allowed us to maximum use of the warehouse and store larger pieces on the upper floors.