going green......sort of

A hot topic recently has been the "greening" of America. In an effort to get into your hearts and homes, we, the manufacturer, try to lure you to buy our stuff with sometimes legitimate, and other times suspect aspects of our products.

Green is an ambiguous standard that researchers tell us will make you feel good about the products you buy, and hence, more of them. But, those same researchers tell us that you won't pay more. They say it is a feature that is a "good to have", not a "must have" feature.

So, as a "good" manufacturer, we are "efforting" to bring you those products that will help you feel better when you buy. But, we still want, no, need you to buy. Because we have to make enough "green" to get green.

Greening is something we need to think of throughout the supply chain. It isn't all about the wood used, or the recyclability of the fabric, or deforestation. Moreso, it involves practical matters, like finding suppliers who are close to our facilities, reduction of package size, elimination of non recyclables in packaging, reduction of the amount of materials that will be landfilled after use, and efficiency in manufacturing.

Many times, I read about how a special wood or green fabric has been used on a piece of furniture. But, often that element or elements have been shipped great distances, totally negating the positive effect of the "green" aspects of the product.

As we go forward with our green initiative, we will continue to be more efficient in the use of raw materials, reduce the amount of post use landfilled materials, reduce the cubic size of the materials shipped through efficient packaging, offer more ways to get the products to the end user with the least amount of fossil fuels used, and find alternative materials to get the desired benefit to the consumer.

While this isn't the sexiest way of going green, it is the most responsible to the environment. And really, isn't that what this is all about?