Herman Miller has won a 2011 Social Innovation award for making substantial gains in reducing its CO2 footprint, while maintaining a strong financial performance over the past year. The company significantly outperformed other nominees in its category - Operations: Best Sustainability Performance - to guarantee it an award, bypassing the shortlist stage.
The third annual Social Innovation Awards offers a platform for companies to highlight their latest practical applications for advancing social and environmental responsibility and innovation throughout their organizations. The international awards program is considered one of the top honors in the field of sustainability.
"Since our founder DJ DePree made the original Herman Miller environmental declaration in 1953, we have worked hard to uphold this responsibility," commented John Kim, Herman Miller's Better World marketing manager. "Through our Environmental Quality Action Team, we continue to set new environmental parameters and priorities, measuring our results along the way."
The awards focus on 10 key sectors of sustainable performance, from best product design to best use of new media to advance social and environmental change. The Operations: Best Sustainability Performance category recognizes Herman Miller's exemplary environmental footprint reduction in recent years, achieving a 90.68 percent overall reduction from its 1993/1994 fiscal year baseline.
Herman Miller has embraced the challenge to reduce waste. "It is essential to be innovative and creative in managing waste," Kim noted. "One of our best programs is the reformulation of paint powder waste into new paint supplies, reducing waste and creating a new product at reduced cost. We also convert old fabric into sound-deadening material for automobiles and recycle paper into bathroom tissue."