Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme Case Study

Evertaut Ltd
Blackburn

Sector Sustainability Challenge

FIRA International Ltd has been instrumental in the establishment of a sustainability strategy for the furniture sector. The result is the Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme (FISP), which was launched in February 2006. The DTI and DEFRA have encouraged this process through the Sector Sustainability Challenge a funding programme to which FIRA successfully submitted a proposal to document two case studies. These are intended to provide practical advice to other companies that wish to follow the path to FISP membership and sustainable operation.

Evertaut
Evertaut is a small manufacturing company (12 employees) based in Blackburn that offers bespoke seating solutions to the theatre, office, and education sectors. The company will be joining FISP as an Associate member and will be working towards Full membership over the next 12 months.

Core Commitments: All companies wishing to become Full members of the Programme must comply with the two core commitments:

Environmental Policy
Unlike many companies of this size Evertaut does have a documented environmental policy, which is publicly available on request. Senior management has signed the policy and resources are in place to progress the policy commitments. However, the policy is not externally verified and although based on ISO 14001 the company does not have certification to this standard. The policy is reviewed on a regular basis. Going forward the company will need to add to the policy a reference to ensure legal compliance and a sentence confirming that environmental improvements are being introduced and met. Some work will also be needed to ensure that all staff are familiar with the policy and working together to meet its requirements. Full commitment from all staff is crucial.

Legal Compliance
Both environmental and health and safety legislation is monitored by consultants who undertake various assessments and also conduct annual audits for environment compliance. The sub contracted consultants ensure that all legal requirements are met. The company is also updated on environmental issues by Groundwork. Evidence of compliance is available through the records issued by the consultant. Registers of applicable legislation are available for health and safety and a responsible person has been nominated for compliance and dissemination of any legal up-dates. To progress towards Full membership of FISP the documentation of an environmental legislation register would be a pre-requisite and extremely beneficial to the company. To aid the objective of benchmarking performance within the sector, Evertaut is willing and able to supply information regarding reportable accidents, prosecutions (if any), improvement notices (if any) and the number of lost days/sickness per employee. These figures will be crucial in establishing the industrys current position and highlighting trends. From this, strategies may be developed to introduce performance improvements and improve the competitiveness of UK furniture manufacturers.

Evertaut HQ in Blackburn

Environmental Commitments: Companies

wishing to attain Full membership status of FISP must comply with at least 5 of the following 9 commitments. All of the commitments were considered here for the benefit of the case study.

Environmental Management Systems

1.
The company does not have a certified environmental management system (EMS) to ISO 14001 2004. It does however have a quality system to ISO 9001 and may be looking to expand this to cover a certified EMS. This process may be a long-term goal. As such the company would benefit from considering BS 8555 Guide to the phased implementation of an environmental management system. This standard allows for phased implementation, gaining third party approval at the different phases until a full EMS has been achieved. Some environmental management is already undertaken and this is evident through initiatives such as changing the adhesives used from solvent based to water based. Further initiatives such as this should be encouraged and results recorded as proof of continual improvement.

2.

Waste Management

The volumes of waste generated are monitored through skip use and disposal. The company fills only one skip per week and finds it difficult to reduce this volume. Insufficient quantities of waste are produced to allow segregation to be realistic, as the volumes are too small to attract recyclers. Data on waste generation will be available to the FISP benchmarking exercise. The Duty of Care requirements under the Environmental Protection Act Part 2 for waste disposal are met. The company has not registered as a hazardous waste producer as no hazardous waste has been produced since the Hazardous Waste Regulations were introduced in 2005. Some office waste recycling initiatives (toners and print cartridges) are undertaken. In addition pallets are recycled. Although the volume of waste produced is relatively small any initiative to reduce costs associated with landfilling must be considered. Potential options could include recycling materials such as cardboard with other companies on the same industrial estate, or requesting that their waste contractor direct skips to a transfer station rather than a landfill site.

3.

Energy Management

Energy consumption is currently monitored in the factory and bills are analysed. Figures for energy consumption in carbon tonnes equivalent are available to FISP via the Enworks online toolkit with which the company is registered. Attempts to reduce energy use are evident by the purchase of a new compressor, which has led to a big reduction in energy costs. All staff are encouraged to turn off lights and equipment when not in use, but stickers and posters should be used in order to reinforce this.

4.

Packaging Management

The volumes of packaging used are monitored even though the company is well below the current thresholds that demand compliance with the Packaging Waste Regulations (approx. 1 tonne per year). The company has done much to improve packaging optimisation including the use of alternative materials where appropriate. Reuseable plastic bags have been introduced to replace much of the cardboard that was routinely disposed of after each delivery. Pallets are recycled, and cardboard reused wherever possible. The company should investigate ways of using returnable packaging such as blankets. This may be difficult if deliveries are carried out by a sub-contractor but not impossible. Incoming packaging is always a problem and due to the relatively small quantities received, persuading suppliers to alter their methods of delivery may be difficult. However, this shouldnt be discounted and discussions should be instigated.

5.

Transport Management

Fuel consumption is monitored and recorded. Deliveries however, are made using a sub-contracted haulier and no data is currently collected. The number of miles per delivered product is not calculated at present as this will require information from the haulier, which as yet is not available. The haulier does however optimise loads and use the most economical routes. All staff live locally and car sharing happens without too much encouragement.

6.

Procurement

The company has a procurement policy within its quality system and this includes environmental and social issues. All timber and wood based product suppliers are asked to provide policy statements. Most suppliers are EU based, although the company is aware of some products coming indirectly from the Far East. With the exception of timber, the company does not ask suppliers to complete questionnaires, although this is something that will be implemented for the future. This will allow them to rate suppliers according to their environmental and sustainable credentials At the moment recyclable products are purchased wherever practicable. Timber based materials will obviously be recyclable but other components are difficult to assess at procurement stage. Third party guidance on sutainable procurement would be helpful. At present little is done with assessing the ethics of the overseas supply chain, especially those materials that arrive indirectly. Pressure should be placed on suppliers to provide more information in this respect.

7.

Sustainable Timber Purchasing

The company does not have a certifiable chain of custody system as yet although it does request certified timber and products from its suppliers. The company does however comply with the Governments timber procurement policy, and is aware of the CITES Regulations (Convention on International Trade in endangered Species) although copies of the relevant appendices are not held. Evertaut currently utilises European Beech and Birch, timbers that are not affected by such regulations. The company should consider ensuring that suppliers verify the origins of their timber supply and where appropriate provide certificates of chain of custody. A longer term goal may be for the company to achieve its own chain of custody certification so that certified products may be passed on to their own customers. Figures on volumes of certified materials purchased will be available to the Programme.

Evertaut s upholstery department

8.

Air Emissions

The company has identified its main emissions to air as VOCs from use of solvents (1 tonne per year used, therefore below thresholds for authorisation). These emissions are monitored for health and safety reasons and for local authority requirements. A solids to solvents ratio is available from the supplier. The only other potential air pollutants are dust and noise. These are well controlled.

9.

End of Life

The company does not operate a take back system, although they will refurbish returned goods where requested. Any furniture returned to the factory for reasons such as damage is reworked or remanufactured wherever practicable. However, less than 1% of product is returned. Design processes do consider end of life and ensure that the products are manufactured for easy disassembly, recyclability and longevity.

Social and Economic Commitments: Companies must

comply with at least two of the six commitments in this section. Again all were considered for the benefit of this case study

1.

Nuisance Management

The company has an informal system in place to record and manage nuisance complaints from neighbours and takes noise readings within the factory. The company will be able to supply the number of complaints received in a twelve-month period and report on whether or not any prosecutions for statutory nuisance have been initiated. In both cases the answer is currently zero. A more formal system needs to be introduced to enable complaints to be recorded and actioned.

2.

Community Relations

The company is involved with the local employment forum and has good housekeeping and landscaping which benefit the surrounding area. At the moment there is no contact with local schools or other community organisations.

3.

Education and Training

All staff receive training relevant to their job function and records are kept, which means the average number of days of training per employee could be calculated. The company uses both external training bodies such as the local chamber of commerce and internal personnel. The need for training on sustainable issues has been identified.

4.

Employment

The company currently employs 12 staff. This has fallen slightly in the last twelve months. The company will actively employ local contractors as long as they meet the skills required to undertake the task. A distance of no more than 5 miles is recommended by the company for contractors to travel. The working environment within the business is good and staff turnover is described as stable. The majority of workers are long term employees.

5.

Charity Work

The company makes the occasional donation to local charities.

6.

Competitiveness

Cost savings from environmental initiatives are not recorded. A more formal EMS will ensure that this happens. Records of savings as a percentage of turnover would be advantageous.

Evertauts manufacturing and storage area

Conclusions
The company would benefit immensely from joining FISP as an Associate member and would likely achieve Full membership status within 9 to 12 months if recommendations were adopted. Some work is required on the environmental policy and documenting a health, safety and environmental register of applicable legislation would ensure that the FISP core commitments are met. Extra work on waste and energy recording and ensuring that the procurement policy is updated to meet the requirements of the Programme could be done relatively quickly. More documented evidence would be required to ensure that certified timber is purchased and consideration should be given to implementing the companys own chain of custody system. With assistance from FIRA and the information in the FISP workbook (received by all member companies) Evertaut should attain the core commitments and at least five of the nine environmental commitments with a modest amount of effort. The company complies with most of the commitments on the social and economic section with little additional work required. Some further training on sustainability could be introduced.

Although we are already working on environmental projects, FISP will help us to identify
further opportunities for improvement and allow us to benchmark our performance against similar companies in the industry.

Nigel Smalley, Director, Evertaut

Evertaut Ltd Sovereign House Lions Drive Shadsworth Business Park Blackburn BB1 2QS Telephone 01254 297880

For more information on how to become a member of the Furniture Industry Sustainability Programme contact Alun Watkins at Fira on 01438 777700 or visit www.askfira.co.uk