This Earth Week, we celebrate people and the positive impact we can have on our environment, working together to provide healthy, inspiring spaces where great work happens.

At Haworth, we are passionate about transforming spaces around the world to improve the quality of life for people—at work, at home, and everywhere in-between. We’re committed to creating a sustainable future so that people can continue to live well and do their best work for years to come.

We deliver on our commitment using a Value Stream as a framework to ground our thinking in a holistic, sustainable manner.

Being transparent and sharing our practices is key to our ongoing commitment. Here are 10 ways we leverage this framework in our ongoing approach to embed sustainable practices across the organization:

Design
1. We design with people and the environment in mind.

Haworth products are created through intensive research and careful consideration of ergonomic impacts, ease of use, assembly and disassembly, as well the materials we use. Compliance with legal requirements, regulations, and directives such as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) is our standard, but we take it one step further—going beyond what is mandated to further reduce potentially hazardous materials in our products.

We continue to offer products free of problematic chemicals such as:

Non-stick additives derived from per- and poly-fluorinated compounds
Antimicrobials
PVC and associated phthalates
Halogenated flame retardants
Heavy metals

Supply Chain
2. We partner with our suppliers to provide increased material transparency and healthy, sustainable choices.

Haworth works with responsible suppliers who stand up to our code of conduct expectations. We work diligently with our supply chain to increase transparency and drive the use of healthy, sustainable materials.

Manufacturing & Logistics
3. We are and will remain a global Zero Waste to Landfill company.

In 2009, Haworth’s North American, Chinese, and Indian operations achieved Zero Waste to Landfill status and are committed to remain as such. Our European operations joined this effort in 2012. Since then, we have invested over 1 million dollars each year to keep waste from the landfill. Haworth recycles waste materials from manufacturing, including metals, wood, plastic, fabric, powder paint, cardboard, office waste, and food.

4. We are committed to reducing emissions from our facilities.

Sharing responsibility for sustainable approaches spans our entire global manufacturing footprint. Since 2005, through our Environmental Management System (EMS), Haworth has reduced VOC emissions by 93%, greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and water usage by 15%.

5. Our teams work to reduce packaging waste around the world.

Haworth members around the globe continually work to create better, more sustainable packaging solutions. The Haworth Germany team recently reduced the amount of foil packaging associated with a table product line by 98%. Shanghai members reduced certain particleboard usage by 50%. And, North American teams compiled a host of initiatives that will result in an estimated 255,000-pound annual reduction in packaging materials used.