The American Home Furnishings Alliance announced that Sam Moore Furniture, a division of Hooker Furniture, has completed the furniture industry-specific environmental management program known as EFEC.
EFEC stands for “Enhancing Furniture’s Environmental Culture.”
“We are very pleased that the Sam Moore team has achieved EFEC registration for its Bedford, Va., plant and offices,” said Alan Cole, president of the Hooker Furniture Upholstery division. “I commend the Sam Moore employees for their leadership, as they are the first in the Hooker Furniture corporate family to reach this important environmental milestone.”
Hooker Furniture’s wood furniture division, based in Martinsville, Va., and its leather upholstery company, Bradington-Young in Cherryville, N.C., also are working towards completion of the EFEC program.
Sam Moore joins a growing list of furniture manufacturers that have EFEC-registered facilities, including American Drew, Bernhardt, C.R. Laine, Fairfield Chair, Hickory Chair, Kincaid, Lea Industries and Vaughan-Bassett.
“The Sam Moore EFEC team and their leader, Phillip West, have done an outstanding job recycling and saving energy, water and landfill space. They have also realized over $250,000 in savings to the company in the process,” said David Davis, director of engineering at Hooker and corporate manager of the EFEC project for all three companies.
From March 2008 to March 2009, while completing the EFEC registration process, Sam Moore reduced its landfill waste by 1.8 million pounds, resulting in a savings of over $40,000 in landfill costs.
In addition, the company reduced its water consumption by 6.3 million gallons, reduced electrical energy use by 3.6 million kilowatt hours, and reduced its use of oil by 344,000 gallons.
“Savings of this magnitude can only be accomplished when companies move environmental stewardship from a back burner issue to a corporate priority and educate employees at all levels about the real-world benefits of improved environmental performance,” explained AHFA vice president Bill Perdue, who oversees the EFEC program.
“In today’s economic climate, when survival literally depends on a company’s ability to streamline operational expenses, you cannot argue with a program that consistently saves companies tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – of dollars,” said Perdue.
EFEC registration is completed one facility at a time. Within that facility, employees are asked to evaluate the environmental impact of operations, raw materials and finished products. Goals for improvement are established and the plan for achieving those goals is evaluated by a Board of Examiners, which then determines whether registration will be awarded.
The American Home Furnishings Alliance – located in High Point, N.C., and Washington, D.C. – is the largest association of home furnishings companies in the world and represents more than 240 leading furniture manufacturers and distributors, as well as nearly 200 suppliers to the furniture industry worldwide.