How Ashley’s giving Wood back to Nature

How Ashley’s giving

Wood back to Nature?

What does sustainability mean to businesses? The most commonly used definition of sustainability incorporates the percept of “Meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs” and Ashley Furniture has been able to stand by this percept very resiliently.

Over the years, Ashley Furniture Home Store has been consistently proving their worth to the environment and has maintained its repute as an eco-friendly firm. And of course, these constant efforts by Ashley Furniture have never gone unnoticed.

So, what has this FOUR TIME WINNER of Furniture Today’s award of the “Fastest growing furniture store chain” done till now?

Well, the list is long but it begins with the simple steps.

Given their statistics of the amount of materials recycled by them each year, it can be rightly said that they are doing a pretty good job on their Environmental Stewardship. They claim to recycle around:

• Recycles 65,000 tons of wood by-products
• Recycles 157 tons of sheet metal
• Recycles 60 tons of Office Paper
• Recycles 34,944 dumpsters of Solid Wood
• Recycles 13,000 of Wood Pallets
• Recycles 3000 of Light bulbs
• Recycles 7000 pounds of Computer Equipment
• Recycles 24 trailers of Plastic Film
• Recycles 11 trailers of Corrugated Cardboard

Talking more specifically about giving wood back to nature,

25,000+ TREES are distributed by Ashley Furniture every year in observance of Arbor Day

1000+ TREES AND SHRUBS are maintained in their Arcadia Campus

Another big nature friendly big is the Engineered Wood (also known as man-made wood) which is found at the core of most of Ashley’s furniture. This man-made wood is considered one of the most environment friendly material present in the furniture industry since the paint finishes for it are almost completely water based and adhesives used to make its panels achieve stringent formaldehyde emissions standards

Using Engineered Wood enables manufacturers to use 95% of the tree

Solid lumber uses only 63% of the tree

The efforts don’t just end at the products, but extend to the production facilities as well. Ashley furniture promotes environmental conservation through energy preservation and its efficient use. Their facilities:

• Use T5 and T8 fluorescent fixtures which produce better quality light consuming less than half the power.
• Are built with Skylights that allow them to keep the lights shut for 25-40% of the day.
• Use Wood byproducts to fulfill 65% of their heating needs through a biomass fueled boiler in their Arcadia headquarters.

Ashley’s employees at these facilities too are sincerely dedicated to this cause and they constantly keep feeding the company with energy saving ideas through idea networks. The savings from the idea implemented are shared by the employees and the best idea contributor is rewarded.

Ashley Furniture home store has led with example and shown how giving back as much as you can come back to you tenfold. They have not been just giving back to the environment but to the community too in terms of hours of service and in money too. With their drive for excellence and strive for sustainability, they continue to inspire furniture companies all the way. After all, there is a reason why they’re the #1 Home Furniture Retailer in North America.

At the end of our seven week series of Best IT Innovations in the Furniture Industry, Ashley wins our hearts with its ‘giving back to nature’ initiatives. Read below who else featured in this series of 7 winners.