Celebrating Earth Day- Century's Environmental Stewardship Policy

 599-211 Consulate Soane Tall Cabinet in Lapis 

Century Furniture strives to achieve the status of “The Best” furniture company in the world.
Our environmental policy is a key element of our corporate philosophy. Since our beginnings in 1947, it has been our culture to be socially responsible with the safety and health of our associates, our business partners, our customers and our natural environment. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact through intelligent design, conservation, and recycling.

We believe the best way to conserve environmental resources is to design and manufacture furniture of such impeccable quality that it will last for generations. Nothing is more wasteful than disposable furniture.

The vast majority of our furniture is manufactured in Hickory, NC from predominantly domestic materials. Very high energy costs are involved in the transportation of furniture and raw materials. When items are produced locally, the environmental footprint is much smaller.

We strive to meet or exceed all regulatory or industry standards in terms of safety and potential emissions to the environment. No resource is more important than the health of our associates. We set and continually review objectives and targets to protect our global environment. We seek not only to comply with safety and environmental regulations, but also to implement in-house standards to continuously improve our environmental performance and reduce our environmental footprint.

We believe in renewable energy. We will continue our efforts to reduce energy use by combusting scrap wood and sawdust to generate power for our manufacturing facilities.

We believe that recycling is critical to pollution prevention: Computers, ink cartridges, batteries, paper, cotton, fabric & leather scraps, cardboard, pallets, fluorescent bulbs, cans, glass and bottles, etc. Every employee is empowered and motivated to recycle whenever possible and systems are in place to maximize our recycling efforts.

EFEC

Century Furniture is certified as an EFEC company.  EFEC is a voluntary environmental management system (EMS) for furniture manufacturers.  It was created with the purpose of maintaining and furthering the industry’s strong environmental performance.  The EFEC system is a set of management tools and principles that a company needs to integrate environmental concerns into its daily business practices.  EFEC provides a systematic approach to review and improve operations for better environmental performance and improved profitability.  Benefits are obtained by setting up procedures to get the work done and reviewing these procedures to ensure they are working properly.

In addition, many state regulatory agencies are creating benefits for companies that have an EMS in place. These benefits may include less reporting, fewer inspections, permit flexibility, faster permit approvals, government recognition, and reduced permit and application fees.

• Create a proactive environmental management system
• Implement an environmental system in a business setting to create new opportunities to increase company value
• Create a communication forum to showcase industry’s environmental commitment
• Serve as a foundation for future business requirements including environmental certification

Century Furniture’s main office and each of our manufacturing facilities have been EFEC certified since 2010.  In addition, Century Furniture was recognized as a Sustainable by Design company in October 2010.  Both EFEC and Sustainable by Design are audited and continuous improvement recognitions, which means our Century team is continually working towards higher and improved environmental standards for our company.

Rainforest Alliance 

The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization (NGO) with the published aims of working to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.

• Through a Supply chain risk assessment the Rainforest Alliance helped us see potential areas of risk and how we could change future buying practices
• We worked together to develop and implement a Responsible Purchasing Policy for Wood Products
• The Rainforest Alliance certified Century Furniture as FSC® Chain of Custody Certified

All of these efforts are intended to ensure our positive effect on the global supply chain for wood products, ensuring that this precious resource will be here for use and enjoyment of future generations. We feel very proud of progress made in our own company and the influence we have had on the wider global supply chain.

We continue to work each day to find ways to be better stewards of our resources.  From our recycling programs to our high level work to ensure the chain of custody on our wood, Century is committed to continued improvement and environmental leadership.