Herman Miller announced on Sept. 12 that its Spring Lake, Mich, manufacturing locations will be powered 100% by renewable energy.
Working with Constellation, the energy will come from the Harvest II wind project in Elkton, Mich., which is managed by Exelon Generation.
"This project will help us meet our sustainability goals -- and doesn't negatively impact our business,” said Gabe Wing, director of Safety and Sustainability at Herman Miller.” We will continue to reduce our carbon footprint through energy efficiency projects and supporting green energy projects like Harvest II where the market allows," said Gabe Wing, director of Safety and Sustainability at Herman Miller.
The Spring Lake campus is made up of two vertically integrated steel manufacturing facilities that fabricate, powder coat, and assemble numerous products, including height adjustable tables, filing and storage systems, and desking.
The agreement is expected to supply Herman Miller with roughly 25,000 megawatt hours of wind energy annually, which is enough to power more than 2,700 homes for one year, according to U.S. EPA estimates. That's about double the homes in the village of Spring Lake. The Spring Lake campus is responsible for about a quarter of Herman Miller's global energy consumption – and is the biggest consumer of electricity in Spring Lake.
In 2016, Herman Miller began a partnership with Foresight, an energy management firm headquartered in Zeeland, Mich., to evaluate and implement procurement strategies across all facilities and business units aimed at reducing costs and increasing its renewable energy consumption
This investment in renewable energy a part of the company’s Earthright Strategy – a commitment to creating a “better world” by 2023.
The company’s strategy announced in 2014, includes 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.
In 2018, the company released a report on its progress regarding this strategy.
