With 3 million square feet of domestic manufacturing, La-Z-Boy Residential represents the largest American Home Furnishings Alliance member to implement an industry-specific environmental management program called EFEC.
EFEC – “Enhancing Furniture’s Environmental Culture” – was created by AHFA more than 10 years ago, but the program has gained momentum over the last two years as the home furnishings industry has taken a greater interest in environmentalism – and an even keener interest, perhaps, in the simultaneous operational savings that typically spring from focused efforts to conserve energy and recycle.
“La-Z-Boy Inc. has always placed a high level of importance on the environment and, over the years, has adopted numerous practices and principles throughout its facilities to help preserve it,” says Kurt Darrow, CEO. “The AHFA’s EFEC program has helped us gain momentum in our environmental stewardship, and we are continuing to instill a culture throughout our organization to be an environmentally-responsible citizen.”
Darrow continues: “As a result of our commitment to sustainability, using AHFA’s specifications, we have instituted additional measures throughout our manufacturing facilities and at our corporate headquarters to ensure that our operations are environmentally-friendly and do not negatively impact the environment for future generations.”
La-Z-Boy’s largest upholstery plant is in Dayton, Tenn. The 1.2 million-square-foot facility produces recliners, sofas, sofa-sleepers and reclining sofas. From 2007 to 2008, the EFEC team in Dayton reduced total energy usage by 12 percent. Electrical costs were trimmed 1.3 percent, even with a 23 percent rate hike. Natural gas consumption dropped by 50 percent, and water consumption decreased by 23 percent, or 5.2 million gallons.
But the most dramatic numbers in Dayton’s report were dollars earned rather than dollars saved. Improving efforts to sort and segregate recyclable materials from the solid waste stream – and to identify sales opportunities for those recyclable materials – resulted in $1.9 million in recycling revenue in 2008. Total landfill waste was reduced by 214,000 pounds (8.7 percent), while 9.5 million pounds of recycled materials were used as a fuel source for on-site boilers.
In addition to the Dayton facility, La-Z-Boy operates upholstery factories in four other locations, including Newton, Miss.; Redlands, Calif.; Neosho, Mo.; and Siloam Springs, Ark. Aggregated results for the entire division included:
- Reduced electrical use by more than 9 percent;
- Decreased natural gas consumption by nearly 25 percent;
- Reduced water consumption at three plants totaling 6.68 million gallons;
- More than 2 million additional pounds of waste diverted from landfills (14.7 percent reduction); and,
- More than 50 million pounds of material recycled or reused.
“We allowed the EFEC teams within each plant the flexibility to create their own programs tailored to their site-specific needs,” notes Rod Miller, La-Z-Boy’s director of environmental affairs.
Key initiatives included:
- Creating an energy conservation guidance document and completing energy audits;
- Completing an air compressor leak audit and enhancing the maintenance program to repair air compressor line leaks;
- Monitoring and scheduling lighting use to reduce time on;
- Converting to efficient lighting in areas not already converted;
- Creating a waste recycling/disposal tracking program;
- Assigning someone from purchasing to negotiate better recycling pricing and track markets for recycled materials;
- Installing a new steel coil lubrication system for presses, thereby using less water and chemicals; and,
- Implementing a program for monitoring landscaping sprinkler systems.
“La-Z-Boy is committed to integrating environmentally sound and sustainable business practices into our daily business decisions,” Miller says. “Our culture has always included being a socially responsible corporate citizen and giving back to the communities in which we operate. So our decision to become EFEC-registered was the right thing to do.”
Miller continues: “We want to improve the environment for future generations, and the EFEC program is one way of doing that. This has been a team pursuit throughout La-Z-Boy and has empowered our employees to reduce, reuse and recycle!”
La-Z-Boy Residential joins a growing list of furniture manufacturers that have EFEC-registered facilities, including Sam Moore, a division of Hooker Furniture; American Drew, Lea Industries, Kincaid Furniture and Hammary, all part of La-Z-Boy’s Casegoods Division; Bernhardt Furniture; C.R. Laine; Fairfield Chair; Hickory Chair; and Vaughan-Bassett.
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.