Stanley Furniture, hosted a unique Earth Day celebration this year, jump starting the company's short and long-term sustainability goals.
Spearheaded by Stanley Furniture's Vice President of Engineering and recently appointed “Green Czar,” Cristina Loth, the company developed and launched a creative recycling initiative to honor Earth Day as well as its unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship. Over two days, Loth, along with fellow members of the “Green Team,” traveled throughout the South Carolina area collecting packaging waste materials from six of Stanley Furniture's participating retailers.
J Banks Design Group, Coastal Chic, Stuckey Brothers Furniture (in Ridgeland and Mt. Pleasant), Morris Sokol and Marty Raeʼs were among the eventʼs recycling donators, contributing enough packaging waste material to fill out the 3,500 cubic foot Stanley
Furniture truck.
According to Marty Raeʼs of Lexington, leftover packaging material is a huge concern for furniture retailers. In fact, 3,500 cu. ft. of waste represents less than two weeksʼ worth of deliveries for the retailer, resulting in a great deal of material, not to mention
unusable space.
Cost is also an issue when it comes to recycling packaging waste materials. Joe Sokol of Morris Sokol in Charleston, S.C., makes every effort to recycle his storeʼs discarded packaging materials. “Cardboard can be recycled through the county, but itʼs not so
easy to dispose of other packaging materials such as styrofoam, plastic bags and even skids.”
Stanley Furnitureʼs Earth Day celebration was the first of many initiatives designed to foster one of the companyʼs key initiatives, called “Our World Made Better.”
According to Glenn Prillaman, Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing, “Our World Made Better,” or OWMB, is part of Stanley Furnitureʼs corporate-wide mission “to positively impact the lives and futures of the companyʼs customers, associates,
shareholders, partners and planet.”
“Over the next three years, itʼs one of our goals to improve our packaging as a means of reducing cost and waste,” said Loth. “We saw this initiative as a great way to begin increasing awareness in this area.” In addition, Stanley Furniture has pledged to channel its energies into two other major areas, including air quality improvement and the reduction of hazardous waste via a corporate-wide solvent recovery program.
Coastal Chic owner, Susan Tygret added, “Iʼm thankful that Stanley Furniture has set the pace for such an important initiative. Itʼs definitely a step in the right direction for furniture manufacturers.”
For more information about Stanley Furnitureʼs commitment to sustainability, visit www.ourworldmadebetter.com. |
