La-Z-Boy is partnering with a nonprofit to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and source sustainable wood

• La-Z-Boy has partnered with the Sustainable Furnishings Council to reach its sustainability goals.
• The SFC provides peer-to-peer learning, trainings, and partnership opportunities.
• With the SFC's help, La-Z-Boy now has a policy that outlines its commitments to sustainable wood.

La-Z-Boy's sustainability efforts began 15 years ago when the Monroe, Michigan-based company instituted a lean manufacturing program to cut waste and costs. That system helped lower electricity usage by more than 28%, reduce water consumption by 22 million gallons a year, and achieve zero waste to landfills in eight factories and distribution centers.

Today, La-Z-Boy has moved on to comparably more challenging programs to cut overall greenhouse gas emissions within its supply chain and develop long-term relationships with suppliers of sustainably-sourced wood - a major challenge for many furniture companies.

Amy Vernon, director of global product safety and stewardship at La-Z-Boy, knew it would make more sense to get peer and professional help with these efforts rather than going it alone. The brand convened a sustainability council, but Vernon also got involved with the Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC), a nonprofit committed to raising awareness and expanding the adoption of sustainable practices within the home furnishings industry. Here's a look at their partnership.

Professional and peer-to-peer education help when going green

The SFC starts relationships with a framework of what sustainability means, along with numerous industry-specific best practices it's developed through collaborations with professionals. Staff can sign up for GREENleaders, a six-hour professional certification program that provides education on issues such as sourcing ecofriendly materials and green manufacturing processes.

One of the SFC's most valuable services is convening regular meetings to help companies learn about sustainability and work through their own challenges. Sometimes experts from organizations like the Textile Exchange speak on issues such as reducing and reusing textile waste.

There's also a peer-to-peer learning component. Vernon said she's appreciated the chance to hear about Williams-Sonoma's green programs because the company is considered a leader in sustainability. Conversations like these "help those of us in the industry that are just getting started with their carbon-emission programs to see the hurdles they've crossed and make those transactions smoother," Vernon said.

The SFC's own work is made possible through partnerships with other organizations. While the staff is willing to offer their own expertise, oftentimes they act as a conduit, connecting brands that have challenges to people who can help solve them.

One of the first questions Vernon had for Susan Inglis, the SFC's executive director, was how to source wood responsibly.

"We had a lot of great intentions about making sure we were sourcing responsibly, but we weren't necessarily being diligent about future sourcing," - something that's particularly critical now because of the current supply-chain challenges, Vernon said. Inglis referred Vernon to the SFC's Wood Furniture Scorecard best-practices document and connected her to groups like Forests Forward, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Forest Stewardship Council. Now, La-Z-Boy has a written policy that outlines its commitments and suppliers.

To help consumers and trade professionals identify which companies are doing a good job with sustainability, the SFC does score its members as gold, silver, or simply a member and publish that information on its website.

But while there's a place for setting standards and determining whether or not companies meet them, there's also a critical role for groups that facilitate learning, partnerships, and the efforts of those who want to do better. "If we tried to be a certifying body, we couldn't have the impact we do," Inglis said.

Internal and external partnerships are vital

Partnerships have always been important to La-Z-Boy's sustainability efforts. When it was looking to lower electricity and water consumption, it worked closely with its local utility for resources and ideas. To look at greenhouse gas emissions created by external organizations within its value chain, La-Z-Boy is partnering with S&P Global Trucost.

Partnerships must exist internally, too, for a company to achieve sustainability goals. "We have teams of people from across the enterprise who are involved with our sustainability program simply because it's something they have a passion for," Tim McCurry, La-Z-Boy's senior director of environmental health and safety, said. "These folks have all sorts of jobs working for La-Z-Boy and bring a diversity of perspectives that enrich our program and make suggestions to improve processes that may otherwise go unnoticed."

Whether collaborations are internal or external (and hopefully both), Inglis believes they're essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, the goal outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. "That is what we must do - we must pull together, all oars in the water and all oars going in the same direction," she said. "Otherwise, it's not going to be possible."