Find a Green Manufacturer - Directions East, Inc.

Standard Best Practices

• We pay a living wage rather than minimum wage & we extend that around the globe: Yes
• We have a written Social Equity Code of Conduct as a baseline for employee relations: No
• We have written and distributed a Supplier Equity Code of Conduct for our vendors and conduct training at our partner facilities on the adoption of same: Yes
• We and our partners meet or exceed all local health and safety codes and can document our health and safety working conditions in all our facilities/stores: Yes
• We have participated in or sponsored in-store, community and/or regional educational events on sustainability and the environment: Yes
• We investigate and mitigate any negative environmental impacts from our operations: Yes
• We regularly ask for verifiable chain of custody documents (legal logging certifications) before buying wood products: Yes
• We are eliminating unsustainable virgin materials from our product offerings while increasing our percents to total of rapidly renewable resources, reused/reclaimed components and recycled content. We factor disassembly, recyclability and product reclamation into buying decisions: Yes
• We have decreased our use/acceptance of known toxic chemicals for treatments, binders and finishes, replacing compounds that harm indoor air quality and are carcinogenic: No
• We are asking our vendors for organic cotton in place of conventionally-grown cotton and for textiles that are Oeko-Tex certified: No
• We are getting quotes on doing a Life Cycle Analysis and/or are applying for SMaRT certification: No
• We offer a product reclamation/product reuse policy: No
• We use recycled or recyclable packing/packaging materials, offer blanket-wrap transportation arrangements for customers and have a carton return/reuse policy: Yes
• We hold third party certifications for some of our products/as a store, we promote and educate the consumer on the meaning of various third party certifications: No
• We take responsibility for sharing our commitment to sustainability up and down our entire supply chain, rewarding our vendors with increased business for partnering with us on this path to sustainability: Yes
• We save reams of paper with our policy expressing an aversion to excess written documentation: Yes
• We have had an energy specialist/utility company audit to measure our conventional energy usage and are on track to reduce it, replacing a portion with certified renewable energy, either directly or by contacting Green e-Power: No
• We have replaced outdated and inefficient equipment, identified and changed wasteful resource procedures and implemented tighter operational controls: Yes
• We have increased the use of daylighting and instituted a fluorescent bulb exchange policy for direct cost savings: Yes
• We make only verifiable sustainability claims in adherence with FTC mandates against greenwash and in support of their Environmental Marketing Guides. Authenticity and adoption of one credible standard reduces confusion in the marketplace, driving sales: Yes
• We conduct training in-house and in the broader community about global climate change and our partnership with the SFC: Yes
• In keeping with our commitment to continual improvement, we are planning to take the following actions this year: On energy consumption: We have dramatically reduced our heating bill by over 50% from the previous year and electricity by nearly 30% by such practices as keeping heat off and doors shut and sealed in warehouse portions not used during the day, keeping the thermostat @ between 55-58 degrees at night in the winter, sealing windows and doors with weather stripping, using fans instead of air conditioning when possible.
• In keeping with our commitment to continual improvement, we are planning to take the following actions this year: On how we will manage our primary material or service to a more sustainable direction: This year we are making a major move on all primary materials we use. In the case of metal we are moving away from the use of such metals that cannot be recycled as is. For instance we are moving towards the use of stainelss steel instead of metals that are painted. last year stainelss stell was 15% of our metal product line. Now stainless has become 40% of our metal production. Next year the goal is 60%! In terms of any wood we use now ALL MUST BE FSC CERTIFIED. Any mdf material we use in our products now passes (and is certified)the CARB 1 PHASE introduced in the USA by the State of CA . This year 20% of our product line is made of bamboo a renewable product. BY beginning of next year it will be 30% of our line. ALL GLUES ARE NON TOXIC (meet E1 standards in Europe) and all bamboo we use has waterbased stains.
• In keeping with our commitment to continual improvement, we are planning to take the following actions this year: On education and promotion of the sustainability cause: Aside from increasing the awareness in our office alone in our weekly meetings(each week we discuss one aspect of sustainability), I do plan to talk with our current manufactuers in Asia through a friend in Vietnam who is now teaching all aspects of sustainabilty to the furniture industry in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. I am going to travel with him first in Vietnam and attend his lectures to the furniture industry and then review with him on how and what we need to discuss with my Chinese manufacturers.