It is not surprising that companies are more conscious of their environmental impact. Some companies stand out because they go beyond reducing carbon footprints and cultivate socially conscious corporate cultures where making a positive difference is just as important as making profits.

Humanscale, a world leader in the manufacture and design of ergonomic office products that are high-performance, shows how one company can lead the way.

Concerning environmental impact, “‘less bad’ is not good enough,”Bob King, Humanscale’s CEO and founder, says it all.

“We took a look at our manufacturing and operational activities to understand our key impacts: energy, water, emissions, resource depletion, wildlife preservation, social responsibility and healthy materials,” says King.

“In each area, we consider what it would take to go beyond sustainability to making a truly positive impact on the world around us. If a company can make a positive impact in all of these ways, it will be acting like a tree,”He elaborates.

“While trees aim to grow, they’re self-sustaining and they replenish the environment. If we want to live at peace with the planet, then our factories must be like trees, our companies like a forest.”

Humanscale will release its annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report (CSR) in time for Earth Overshoot Day. This is the day when Earth’s resources are exhausted beyond what it can regenerate within a year.

The report highlights the company’s achievements, including the use solar energy to generate nearly 70% of the electricity at its main manufacturing facility in 2018, and the reduction of normalized greenhouse gases emissions by 63 per cent since 2011.

Humanscale employees also participated in more than 10,340 activities over the last year. These included saving energy, reducing water usage, and reducing their emissions.

Humanscale has made material transparency a priority. Material transparency is the ability to label products such as furniture with information similar to food ingredient labels. This allows consumers to clearly see what materials are in the product. Declare labels or Health Product Declarations (HPDs) are two examples of material transparency labels that can be used to identify toxic and unhealthy substances in products. These labels allow consumers to make informed decisions about which products they want for their home or office.

Humanscale is leading in this area. They have no Red List chemicals in their products, and published 60 percent all Declare labels as well as 54 percent of all HPDs for the entire furniture industry by December 2018.

Humanscale was awarded the BIFMA Level 3 (the highest certification of this association) in 2018. BIFMA was created by analyzing product manufacturing, including energy and water use, as well as emissions and waste.

Visit Humanscale to find out more about the sustainability initiatives of Humanscale. humanscale.com.