Employee programs include the Cool Planet Challenge and Sustainable Garden Club
Herman Miller, Inc., is encouraging its employees to participate in preserving the environment through its Cool Planet Challenge and the Sustainable Garden Club. The programs reflect the enthusiasm of the company's employees for creating a sustainable environment both at their workplace and in their own homes.
The programs stem from the company's Perfect Vision initiative, a strategy to achieve a wide range of corporate sustainability targets, including zero waste to landfills, zero hazardous waste generation, and a carbon neutral operational footprint by the year 2020. While the company remains on target to accomplish its goals, it also is focusing on opportunities to empower employees as environmental advocates.
Paul Murray, Herman Miller's Director of Environmental Health and Safety, believes it makes sense for Herman Miller to inspire a sustainable lifestyle among employees and hopefully ignite interest for other companies to support similar programs.
"Herman Miller employees have contributed to helping the company achieve a renewable energy level of 63 percent, which amounts to operating at approximately 50 percent carbon neutral," notes Murray. "With rising fuel prices and heating costs, we feel it's a great time to help them save money by lowering their individual energy use and reducing their own carbon footprint. It's another example of how we continue to respond to the charge led by founder D.J. DePree of being good stewards of the environment."
The Cool Planet Challenge will provide an opportunity for employees to track their energy consumption and carbon footprint though an online database. The program begins June 1, 2008, and it concludes on March 31, 2009.
The carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support daily activities, such as driving a car or supporting the use of plastics in shopping bags and water bottles.
Employees who register for the Challenge are required to monitor their miles driven per week, their car's gas mileage, and their average monthly bill for gas, oil, and electricity. In return, they will receive suggestions about how to become more energy efficient--Murray hints that some of the solutions will be very creative and radical, while others will require minimal changes to a daily routine.
The top three employees who demonstrate the highest reduction of carbon footprint will have the opportunity to select from a range of prizes, including a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share for locally-grown organic vegetables for 25 weeks or a gift certificate to a local bike shop.
Sustainable Garden Club
Herman Miller's Sustainable Garden Club is driven from the company's interest in biomimicry and its impact on design. As the company strives to create sustainable interior habitats, it is observing the lifecycles of nature for its inspiration, according to Fabienne Munch, director of Herman Miller's Ideation Office.
"If we could learn to mimic natural, sustainable ecosystems we might just inspire people to love their work spaces," adds Munch. "What better way to help Herman Miller take inspiration than creating a sustainable garden based on a natural stable ecosystem?"
Design for the Environment engineer Thaddeus Owen notes that the idea for the Garden Club was inspired by Google's offer to its engineers for 20 percent time, which allows them one day per week to work on things or ideas that inspire them.
He adds: "20 percent time projects are a way to foster creativity and open the pathway to innovations that might not have happened without allowing employees a little free space to create. We're hoping the Garden Club will have this same impact."
The garden will mimic a natural ecosystem, similar to a forest--no mulch or fertilizer. Its maintenance will be a function of nature, based on the relationships of the plants to one another. The Garden Club will select the plants, flowers, and vegetables and maintain them according to a schedule.
"Employees light up when they hear they can help to plant a garden on site. They're anxious to play a role in the project because of the ideas and inspiration that might follow," adds Murray.
Currently, the Garden Club exists at Herman Miller's Design Yard facility in Holland, Michigan. The company plans to foster Garden Clubs at its other West Michigan facilities and potentially worldwide.
About Herman Miller
The designs and services of Herman Miller enhance the performance of human habitats worldwide, making customers' lives more productive, rewarding, delightful, and meaningful. The company's award-winning products, complemented by furniture management and strategic consulting services, generated over $1.9 billion in revenue during fiscal 2007. For over 50 years the company has had a formal commitment to environmental sustainability, demonstrated through its founding membership in the U.S. Green Building Council and in being the first company to implement the McDonough Braungart "Cradle to Cradle" design protocol for all new products. Through its "Perfect Vision" goals for the year 2020, the company has committed to eliminating all landfill, hazardous waste, air and waste water emissions, and to use 100% renewable energy. Click here for additional information on the company's progress toward environmental and social sustainability.
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