Vision
Since 1948, Bretford has been committed to producing high-quality products that add value to people's work and school experiences. From the start, we've worked to minimize waste throughout the product life cycle. As we look ahead into the 21st Century, Bretford envisions a future in which our factories are accident free, create zero waste, emit only benign emissions, use energy in highly efficient ways, and recycle our discarded products as raw material for new products.
Commitment
In order to best manage the progress of our environmental efforts, Bretford has established a company-wide program called Sustainability@Bretford. Listed below are the primary goals of the Sustainability@Bretford program. These long-term goals may be refined and enhanced by Bretford as we learn more and as sustainability is better understood.
- Eliminate waste.
- Eliminate harmful emissions.
- Use renewable energy.
- Create closed-loop processes so that every Bretford product can be recycled at the end of its lifecycle.
- Integrate sustainability into Bretford's culture so that opportunities for change and improvement come from all areas of the business.
- Provide education and resources for all departments and facilities to continually improve our environmental performance.
- Share knowledge, ideas, and resources with our employees, our customers, our business partners, and our local communities.
- Use our environmental performance metrics as an informational support tool for day-to-day and long-term business decision-making.
Environmental Statement
Bretford designs and manufactures products to provide long-lasting and environmentally safe operations. The following accomplishments and activities have helped Bretford create a culture of continual improvement to our environmental stewardship.
Organizational Management
- Bretford provides environmental education and resources for all departments and facilities to continually improve and participate in our environmental performance.
- Bretford has a cross-functional team dedicated to maintaining and improving our environmental management system. It is the team's responsibility to gather and process data for all corporate environmental performance metrics.
- Bretford uses environmental performance metrics as an informational support tool for day-to-day and long-term business decision-making.
- Recycling is embraced throughout Bretford's organization through the purchase of some recycled and recyclable materials, as well as the implementation of recycling programs for not only plant packaging materials but also the bottles, cans, and paper generated by office personnel.
- All copy paper that is purchased for use at Bretford is made from recycled content.
- Bretford actively recycles scrap paper, and blue recycling receptacles can be found at every desk and copier at the corporate office.
- Bretford also recycles our old computers, monitors, and toner cartridges.
Products
- Our product development is respectful to the environmental and health effects of a product. The areas that we concentrate on are: using the minimum amount of resources by making the most efficient use of materials, phasing out materials and chemical substances which can have a negative impact on people and/or the environment, and using renewable and recyclable materials whenever it is possible to do so without compromising product performance and quality standards.
- Bretford specifies the purchase of particle board that contains a minimum of 40% recycled material. The majority of Bretford's wood scraps are sent off site to be ground and used for horse and cattle bedding or in a fuel blend.
- Bretford purchases steel tubing and sheet metal with an average of 35% recycled content. All excess scrap steel and aluminum is used for our paint sample program and/or picked up by a recycling vendor to be reprocessed.
- The rubber mats supplied with Bretford carts and furniture are made from 100% recycled rubber. This helps decrease the amount of car tires and other rubber waste that normally ends up in a landfill.
- Bretford repurposes excess, damaged, and returned product to local school districts and adult computer education programs. Some of our products which do not meet our quality control standards are reused as assembly tables or computer workstations within our manufacturing plants.
Energy Efficiency
- Bretford production teams enforce brown-outs during summer months to conserve energy and reduce strain on local utilities.
- In 1995, Bretford elected to enroll in an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency program called the Emission Reduction Market System (ERMS). The program pertains to companies which are in the Chicago region. This program asks that all participants make at least a 12% reduction in the amount of seasonal emissions emitted. This was accomplished by Bretford in 1999.
- The majority of our office equipment is specifically designed to be energy efficient. For example, all of our computers, monitors, and copiers automatically power down after a specified period of non-use. By using energy-efficient equipment, we reduce our energy consumption and ultimately use less environmental resources.
Production Processes
- Bretford metal parts are painted using electrostatic powder coat paint. Bretford was one of the first manufacturers in the nation to switch from spray-on wet paint, high in VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), to electrostatic powder paint, eliminating all VOCs caused by wet painting. Powder paints are extremely durable and have negligible VOC content compared to traditional liquid paints. With the electrostatic process and special spray guns, little powder paint waste is generated. Some of our paint lines even reclaim the powder paint waste to use again on future products.
- Bretford uses water-based glues and adhesives in our wood production cells to help eliminate harmful VOC emissions.
- Bretford uses a recycled solvent cleaning agent on its finishing lines. This same solvent is then recycled and used for a fuel blend.
- Bretford purchased and incorporated a state-of-the-art UV wood finishing line which replaced our conventional finishing line. Bretford's UV wood finishing line has helped us realize a tremendous reduction in the amount of VOCs emitted annually.
Distribution
- Because our main method of shipping is direct drop shipment to the customer, Bretford often eliminates the middleman in the shipping of products to the destination. This alleviates the need for a number of different trucks hauling the same products. The result is that Bretford helps reduce fuel usage, inefficient miles per gallon, and equipment wear and tear.
- Bretford schedulers and dock personnel work in cooperation with shipping companies to utilize the maximum amount of truck space available. By reducing the number of trucks on the road, Bretford saves on fuel usage and equipment wear and tear. Methods utilized to increase space capacity include order and destination consolidation as well as palletizing, shrink wrapping, and bulk packaging product to eliminate space-consuming packaging.
- Bretford uses packaging materials that can be easily recycled and/or reused, such as corrugated cardboard and wood crates/pallets.
- Bretford's packout teams ensure that product packaging is tight and sturdy so that the product makes it to the final destination in perfect condition with the least amount of freight cost possible. If our products are damaged during transportation, it takes 2-3 times as much materials, energy, and resources to replace or repair the damaged parts. At Bretford, we strive to do it right the first time, on time, every time!
Our Goal
At Bretford, our goal is to do it right the first time, on time, every time!
Greenguard
Bretford has earned GREENGUARD Certification for many of its tables, carts and accessories used in commercial business and education facilities. Through this designation and in partnership with facilities managers, designers, architects and resellers, Bretford is helping to create healthier working and learning environments – particularly for children. By specifying or installing Bretford’s GREENGUARD Certified products, institutions are closer to achieving valuable LEED Certification, the nationally accepted benchmark towards the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Click the following link for a complete listing of GREENGUARD Certified Bretford models.
CarbonNeutral® COMPANY
To achieve CarbronNeutral® company certification, Bretford is working with The CarbonNeutral Company, a world-leading provider of carbon reduction solutions. Bretford has reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol, the global standard for carbon neutral certification. The program involved an independent assessment of the CO2 emissions produced from energy consumption, transportation, business travel and waste folled by an off set-inclusive emissions reduction program. This means that for every one ton of GHG emissions that Bretford produces, it purchases a verified carbon offset which guarantees an equivalent amount of GHG emissions is reduced from the atmosphere through a renewable energy or clean technology project.
CarbonNeutral® PRODUCT
For many products, a significant portion of the carbon footprint is embedded in the extraction, processing and transport of the materials that are used to make the product. With growing interest in measuring and reducing these life cycle emissions, as evidenced by the implementation of Executive Order 13514, Bretford wanted to take a leadership position with one of its most recent introductions, EDU 2.0. Bretford is proud that the EDU 2.0 line of products is one of the first in the contract furniture industry to achieve CarbonNeutral® product certification. As a CarbonNeutral® company Bretford understands that true leadership in reducing its carbon footprint means taking responsibility for the life cycle emissions of its products.
HOW DID WE DO IT?
- Extraction, processing and transportation of raw materials
- Production, packaging and storage within our manufacturing facilities
- Volume and mode of transport to customers
- Garcia River Forestry. The Garcia River Forest project uses conservation-based forest management to absorb and store carbon emissions while restoring wildlife habitat and protecting water quality.
- Yinshan Wind Power. This wind power plant supplies the North China Power Grid with approximately 120,000 MWh of clean energy every year.
- Fiscalini Farms Methane Capture. Located in Modesto California, this project uses an anaerobic digester system to capture methane from cow manure. The methane produced is used to power a 710 kW CHP generator that produces electrical energy to run the Fiscalini Cheese Company’s cheese making facility.
