Herman Miller, Inc. recently announced a new sustainability strategy called Earthright, which will guide the company’s environmental efforts moving forward. The Earthright strategy builds on more than 50 years of environmental learning and commitment to sustainability while sharpening and expanding the company’s goals around the smart use of resources, eco-inspired design, and becoming community driven.

“To continue to be a leader in this area we must evolve our environmental goals and programs, and set ambitious targets to shoot for,” said Brian Walker, Herman Miller’s Chief Executive Officer. “With our Earthright strategy we’re not only renewing our commitment to environmental advocacy, we’re extending our work to the entire Herman Miller community.”

The Earthright strategy begins with three guiding principles; positive transparency, products as living things, and becoming greener together.

Positive Transparency

Herman Miller will share an unprecedented amount of information about the impacts for which the company is responsible. They will also share their point of view on human and environmental health and, more important, what they are doing to transform their business from a net consumer to a net producer of resources.

Products as Living Things

Herman Miller will create better products and design processes to protect people’s health and well-being, restore the ecosystem, and give back more than they extract. The company will do this by applying regenerative design principles.

Greener Together

Herman Miller knows it cannot solve these problems by itself. Instead the company has determined it must engage the entire community including employees, customers, suppliers, dealers, salespeople, and the public.

“Our Earthright strategy provides a framework for smarter resource management, but more importantly, it challenges us to rethink how we design our products, processes, and places to create a better world,” said Gabe Wing, Herman Miller’s Director of Safety and Sustainability. “We know that if we can inspire even a small portion of our community to make changes, big things can happen.”

Earthright outlines 10-year commitments including:

Achieve zero waste from all facilities

Consume 50 percent less water (30 million gallons)

Reduce energy intensity by 50 percent

Increase local renewables by 50 percent 100 percent DfE-approved products 100 percent level 3 certified products

Divert 125,000 tons of product/year

Engage suppliers and employees to help create a Better World

Learn more about Herman Miller’s Earthright strategy by reviewing the company’s annual Better World Report.

About Herman Miller, Inc.

Herman Miller’s inspiring designs, inventive technologies and strategic services help people do great things and organizations to perform at their best. The company’s award-winning products and services generated approximately $1.8 billion in revenue in fiscal 2013. A past recipient of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, Herman Miller designs can be found in the permanent collections of museums worldwide. Innovative business practices and a commitment to social responsibility have also helped establish Herman Miller as a recognized global leader. In 2013, Herman Miller again received the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating in its annual Corporate Equality Index and was named among the 50 Best U.S. Manufacturers by Industry Week. Herman Miller is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.