Green conference proves a hit

The furniture industry must reduce harmful gas emissions and its carbon footprint to help avoid global catastrophe, delegates at the National Furniture Conference were told yesterday.The ECOnomics of Sustainability was attended by a record number, and opened with an edited version of Nobel-prize winning Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

Nicky Chambers of Best Foot Forward then gave an overview of carbon footprinting, and said: “Producers, manufacturers, retailers and suppliers have the power to make a difference”. Nicky has worked with furniture, fmcg and service industries to help them measure and reduce their carbon footprints.  She examined the footprint of a South African apple, to highlight the hidden impacts of packaging and transportation, and discussed the principle of carbon offsetting as a ‘last resort’ while companies work to decrease their own carbon footprint.

“Don’t underestimate how difficult a process it is to work out how carbon neutral you are, but don’t be put off! The first thing is to measure energy consumption, materials use and transportation, and then aim to improve on the results,” she said.

Maria Andreu of Herman Miller gave a case study showing the environmental work the manufacturer has done. For example, its UK head office in Chippenham is air conditioned naturally; heat sensors control the opening and closing of windows automatically to ensure natural ventilation. She used this example to illustrate the problem of global warming. “I am not sure how much longer we can rely on natural ventilation if the temperature keeps rising,” she said.
 
Programme Director of ukfirst, John Baldwin, highlighted the positive action that can be taken to eliminate waste at the production stage by using lean manufacturing methods and processes.  He included case studies across different markets and launched three new programmes that ukfirst is running for the furniture and timber related industries to help them embrace lean manufacturing. “We often find there is insufficient focus on wastage of materials, with companies not knowing how much waste there is or what to do about it,” he said.

Alun Watkins, Environmental Consultant with FIRA, updated the audience on the strides the furniture industry is making with FISP (Furniture Industry Sustainability Project).  With 30 full members and a number of Associate members working towards full membership, the programme continues to develop, with a planned benchmarking Annual Report to be produced by the end of this year. “We’re trying to improve as an industry, and being a FISP member not only helps businesses become more competitive, but is also a persuasive argument for specifiers,” he told delegates.

Luke Palmer, Senior Designer at Orangebox, detailed the company’s many environmental initiatives, including work on carbon footprinting, and how this was fundamental to its approach to design and development.  He outlined the extent of detail that the business undertakes to ensure that its products are as environmentally friendly as possible so that they are able to use that to promote to the consumer. “It would be nice if there was a consistent measure of carbon footprinting which would be easily identifiable to specifiers,” he added.

Gemma Sortwell from Resource Saver approached the issue from a different angle and told the audience how its brokerage service helps businesses by matching unwanted items with community groups who can re-use or recycle them.  She highlighted examples of products that were found good homes - like chairs without seat pads which went to an education facility for a chair project, 150 pallets of bathmats, five wooden bungalows, 1000 cots, Point of Sale material and old office furniture.  The Resource Saver project is all about encouraging business to consider re-use and recycling to avoid landfill.

Workshops included more in-depth looks at carbon footprinting and the new ukfirst programmes on waste and materials management. 20 people chose to watch the full screening of An Inconvenient Truth in the Kestrel Suite at the Heritage Motor Museum, Warwickshire.

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