Putting its decades-long green leadership to the ultimate test, Home Furnishings Association member City Furniture this week announced an ambitious goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040.
City Furniture’s 2040 Green Promise encompasses the company’s showrooms, warehouses, and offices. It also includes its statewide delivery fleet and massive recycling initiatives, according to company President Andrew Koenig. City already leads the U.S. furniture industry with 240,000 square feet of LEED-certified showroom space. It is converting its fleet of delivery trucks to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of relying on diesel fuel. In-house recycling equipment already annually keeps 6 million pounds of cardboard, plastic and Styrofoam waste out of landfills.
“Our purpose has always been to enrich people’s lives and make the world a better place,” said Koenig. “We’re all about helping people create and take care of home, and there’s no home that needs more care than our planet. For us that means investing long-term in strategic innovations that reduce our carbon footprint, improve operations and create a greener future.”
City operates six Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified showrooms. The company, a longtime HFA member, will double its green-designed showroom area to 460,000 square feet by the end of 2019.
Achieving the carbon-neutral goal demands major operational advances, Koenig noted. “By 2040, we plan to run many showrooms on renewable energy, which will offset our electric use,” he said. The company’s 29-store network continues growing in southeast, southwest and central Florida.
Koenig is overseeing the transformation of the company’s delivery fleet from trucks running on diesel to U.S.-produced CNG, including a $1.4 million investment in a fueling station at the headquarters and main distribution center in Tamarac, Fla. Also, City has converted most of its truck fleet, logging more than 12 million miles with clean-running delivery trucks since 2014. The change cut greenhouse emissions by 45 percent. It also saved more than 60 percent on fuel costs. Koenig’s team expects delivery of five all-electric Tesla Semi trucks in the near future.
City Furniture also took an early industry lead on recycling. It recycles 98 percent of its operational waste stream. Each year the recycling center at the headquarters campus condenses 5.5 million pounds of cardboard and 500,000 pounds of plastic and Styrofoam.
