Forward from the President of Herman Miller International
For any organisation, behaving responsibly towards the environment should be more than just a statement of intent. At Herman Miller it’s an attitude that permeates every part of our business; as it has done for more than 50 years. In order to share our environmental goals and communicate clearly with
stakeholders our environmental programme has been consolidated under the title, ‘Policy 53’, reflecting the environmental aims of the organisation since 1953.
2020 enviroment goals
In 2004 we established the ‘Perfect Vision’ programme. The initiative established a target date of 2020 to meet a precise and challenging list of sustainable goals:
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Zero VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions to air
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Zero hazardous waste
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Zero solid waste to landfill
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Zero process water consumption
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100% renewable electrical energy use
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100% of sales from DfE (Design for Enviroment) approved products
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100% of owned or leased company buildings achieve USGBC (United States Green Building Code) LEED (Leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design) silver certification
We are committed to being 80% of this objective by 2010 and have already achieved target in some areas.
With continuing improvements in technology and a strong commitment among Herman Miller employees, we fully intend to reach these goals. And to make sure we’re on track, we measure our performance against these targets and the process is managed by an in-house environmental specialist.
In order to help meet our 2020 vision, Herman Miller has a documented Environmental Management System (EMS) that satisfies requirements of ISO 14001:2004. The EMS is fully integrated within the company’s overall management system and we comply with statutory duties, relevant legislation, regulations and other applicable requirements concerning the environment. We have a procedure to identify the environmental impact of our activities, products and services. It includes emissions to air, releases to water and land, use of raw materials and natural resources.
We are one of the founder members of the ‘Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme’, launched in 2006 in the UK by the Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) and Office Furniture and Filing Manufacturers’
Association (OFFMA). It is a focus for the development of new industry standards and has become established as the trade’s premier forum on environmental and quality matters.
A greener future
Our global client base is highly challenging in its desire for Herman Miller to continue its progress in designing and manufacturing sustainable furniture solutions. With this challenge at the forefront of our minds we see our 2020 goals as a minimum standard only.
With the development of low carbon technologies, we commit ourselves to the prevention of pollution, reduction of waste and continual environmental improvement with the intention of reducing the level of CO2 emissions generated by our activities, not just in the UK but worldwide.
We aspire to excellence in all our endeavours and environmental management is no exception. All employees have my full support in the implementation of this policy.
John Portlock
President
Designing for the environment
Our long-term emphasis on product durability, innovation and quality demonstrates that our company has designed environmentally sensitive products for decades. Today, Herman Miller furniture products come with a 12-year warranty – in use, their lifespan is much greater. As proof, one need only consider the many classic Herman Miller products manufactured in the 1950s that are still being used today. And, as Herman Miller continues its ‘journey towards sustainability’, designing with consideration for environmental impact remains a fundamental part of our corporate strategy.
Our Design for the Environment (DfE) team is responsible for developing environmentally sensitive design standards for Herman Miller products. It has initiated a protocol to guide this effort – McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry’s (MBDC) cradle-to-cradle design protocol.
Raw materials
Sustainable forests
Herman Miller purchases woods that are sourced only from sustainably managed forests. To qualify, the wood cannot be harvested faster than it is being replenished. In accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), it is our policy to avoid using wood that has been illegally harvested, wood from genetically-modified trees, timber from threatened high conservation value old-growth forests and wood harvested from forests where traditional and civil rights are violated - as detailed in ‘CITES’ publications.
We have implemented a chain of custody procedure to ensure compliance with FSC criteria, and source wood from FSC-certified forests. If demand exceeds availability from these sources, we will only purchase from PEFC-certified (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) supplies or from forests which are assured to be sustainably managed.
Recycled materials
It is our aim, wherever possible, to utilise materials that already contain a percentage of recycled content. Our newest steel storage systems are constructed from 60% recycled materials and the award winning Aeron chair contains 66% recycled material.
Supplier Network
At Herman Miller, we are committed to working closely with our suppliers to reduce our collective impact on the environment. Our supplier selection process is rigorous. Suppliers are carefully managed to maximise their potential, by our in-house supplier development team. We not only encourage our suppliers to minimise their operations’ environmental impacts, but require they assist us in decreasing our facilities’ negative environmental effects, as well. Our supplier network is ISO14001 certified or are working towards this accreditation.
Reducing packaging waste is high on our environmental agenda. We are currently working with our storage supplier to eliminate plastic packaging entirely from their product range and to ‘top and tail’ with 100% recycled cardboard instead.
Herman Miller Production System
The office furniture industry has traditionally struggled with long lead times and unreliable delivery commitments, largely because the majority of industry products are built to each customer’s unique order. With so many products, each with its own potential feature and finish options, the number of product permutations runs to many millions. Ongoing improvements in manufacturing practices over time have brought improved reliability, higher quality and reduced costs. With a desire to remain at the forefront of the industry, the implementation of the Herman Miller Production System (HMPS) has had a dramatic effect.
In 1996, Herman Miller started working with Toyota to adopt their highly successful lean manufacturing techniques. The basis of HMPS is
understanding customers’ needs and giving them exactly what they want, when they want it, the way they want it. Anything else is waste.
Healthy manufacturing
Integral to HMPS is the inclusion of safety, health and welfare as part of the continual improvement programme. Safety of employees is never compromised for advancements in production. The HMPS team work closely with the Health and Safety Specialist to design out hazards and achieve appropriate control over risk.
Our employees have regular hearing tests and are screened for occupational skin disease. Regular dust monitoring is undertaken, both personal and static, to ensure dust levels in the factory atmosphere generally and at particular machines is controlled at levels below the maximum exposure level (MEL) of 5mg M³. Information and training is provided to all employees associated with all materials/substances to be used, handled, stored and disposed of within their area.
Welfare facilities at our manufacturing site include a canteen, an outdoor seating area, shower facilities, purified drinking water, free hot beverages, TV, internet access, table football and a pool table.
Product packaging
Our packaging practices have been much modified to minimise waste and save valuable resources in recent years. We are committed to packaging alternatives that fulfil one or more of these criteria: reduce, reuse and recycle. For furniture products manufactured in the UK, we mainly use shrink wrapping and, all shrink wrap trimmings are recycled. This has enabled us to reduce substantially the amount of cardboard used to a small amount for protection of edges. Less packaging weight also translates into lower fuel costs and less pollution when transporting goods to customers.
Chairs produced in the UK are packaged in cardboard boxes. This protects against damage in transit, which would have a negative environmental impact by creating the need to manufacture and deliver a second time. The boxes are made of 100% recycled cardboard which are themselves 100% recyclable. Herman Miller will work with each client to ensure adequate recycling facilities are on hand to recover the cardboard and plastic film on site, or we can remove the boxes for reuse/recycling at our Chippenham facility.
All our pallets are from recycled stock and are 100% recycled at end of life.
Carbon neutrality
Our key furniture platform and seating lines are carbon neutral, in that we off-set the CO² emissions through contributions to replace fuel-hungry inefficient technologies with low carbon alternatives in developing countries.
Product re-use and recycling
Every Herman Miller product is designed to last through many years of reliable performance before being recycled, in whole or in part, when it reaches the end of its long working life.
To assist with recycling, we provide disassembly instructions and recycling options for many of our products.
We encourage our clients and dealers to use the services of accredited companies that can help provide the most socially and environmentally appropriate way of disposing of furniture which is no longer required.
The first goal, the best possible kind of recycling, is always to re-use the furniture, ideally via a charitable donation and we currently work with Green Standards ‘Waste to Wonder’ programme, where ‘redundant’ office equipment including desks, chairs, storage and computers is collected and shipped in containers to remote and impoverished communities to provide education and doctors surgery facilities. Where this is not possible and products are not re-used, they are broken down to their component materials and recycled.
Waste management
Our prime objective is to minimise waste in the manufacturing process. Where waste is unavoidable we have made significant strides in recycling to minimise our contribution to landfill. We currently recycle up to 95%, or 2600 tons, of waste from UK manufacturing facilities per year. This recycled content is then put to a wide variety of uses; for example our MDF and wood dust waste is composted and used as a commercial land-filler or soil improver. Our MFC waste is shredded and utilised as animal bedding for poultry farms.
At the same time, as new manufacturing technologies and techniques have been implemented, our use of hazardous waste has been steadily managed downwards to less than 0.002% of our total waste generated.
We measure and control waste from every area of the business from wood, plastics, card and metal through to vending cups and even batteries.
Energy efficiency
Herman Miller has set a 2020 target for converting to 100% renewable electrical energy for all of our sites. As we work to reduce our environmental impact while maintaining high productivity, we are progressively phasing in the use of green energy in all office and manufacturing facilities. We use 100% green energy at our VillageGreen headquarters in Chippenham, and by 2009 will be using green energy at all other UK sites.
We are currently on track to meet our 100% renewable energy objective and continue to explore new ways to save and source our energy supplies across the world.
Leaf Light
The Yves Béhar designed Leaf Light is a multi-purpose light suitable for home or office. Leaf’s LEDs consume 8 watts or 40% less than compact florescent lights and have a life span of 60,000 hours at 24/7 use. This outstanding lighting product is 95% recyclable at end of life. Leaf is also mercury and lead-free and RoHS compliant. And of course, Leaf was developed in strict accordance with Herman Miller’s Design for Environment standards.
Video Conference
In order to dramatically reduce air travel, extra video conferencing facilities has been added. This has resulted in a 35% reduction in air travel over the past year.
Clean air
At Herman Miller, we are serious about our commitment to a healthy environment. It’s not just about land fill; it’s about emissions to air too. We are continually reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, achieving a year-on-year reduction.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
In our industry, the biggest problem related to clean air has been that of VOCs and in UK manufacturing facilities we have now eliminated all VOCs, replacing them with clean, water-based products.
Transport emissions
Recent investment in our transport fleet ensures we are fully compliant with EU vehicle emissions strategy.
In order to comply with London’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ), we have set up an outer-London hub which means we can night-trunk our wagon-and-drag fleet, then split the load into two parts for transfers into central London.
Fleet management is of the highest level and all drivers achieve the Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving (SAFED) certification, making a major contribution to fuel savings and carbon emission reductions. Onboard computers, which monitor fuel economy, record details of fleet/driver usage per delivery and for multiple drops (i.e. efficient route management/mapping takes into account road quality and topography thereby minimising route deviation).
In addition through reducing the operational weight of vehicle and load through better cube fill, we can reduce the number of journeys through more effective vehicle loading.
Neighbour relations
Herman Miller has been manufacturing in Bath for more than 30 years and maintains excellent relations with the local community. We work closely with Bath & North East Somerset Authority to ensure our manufacturing processes exceed compliance for Bath’s clean air strategy and are certified IPC (B).
Our ISO14001 environmental work instructions include keeping noise and disturbance, both manufacturing and commuting, to a minimum so that our immediate neighbours are not affected. Good housekeeping principles play another vital role in realising our duty to our neighbours.
VillageGreen
Our international HQ at Chippenham, UK, incorporates best practice in environmental design. In 2007, it was awarded BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) 'Excellent' certification, and in 2008 has achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification. This places VillageGreen as one of a handful of UK buildings to achieve this level of certification.
The building reflects our commitment to the environment and better ways of working. We made sure our building contractors operated the considerate contractor scheme; ensuring that keen deliberation was given to environmental issues such as construction waste management, recycling, clean sites, accountability and responsibility.
Communication
Clearly defined improvement programmes are identified annually and adequate resources allocated for their implementation. These multi-functional teams are continually monitored to ensure progress is made and reported into the management review process.
The Environmental Management System is fully documented, implemented, maintained and communicated to Herman Miller employees via training sessions, the intranet, quarterly newsletter, presentations and briefings. Our dealer network has access to environmental data via our intranet site and also receives regular onsite training and updates.
We welcome contact with our local community and have hosted several school/college and business forum visits. Other interested parties may receive written communications or locate Policy 53 information at www.policy53.com or our internet site at www.hermanmiller.com/europe
