Furniture manufacturer makes sustainability the law: Greg Harden's appointment to the New York State Environmental Board enables him to impact the state's development and environmental policies.

What would the average wood-working executive do if given the opportunity to have a significant impact on what laws are made regarding sustainability and the environment? Recently, Greg Harden, president and CEO of Harden Furniture, was given just such an opportunity. On Nov. 10, 2006, Harden was appointed to New York's State Environmental Board by Governor George Pataki.

Any changes to the environmental policy in New York State are reviewed and adopted by the New York State Environmental Board. The board is also a national leader in setting greenhouse gas emissions standards and brownfields cleanup legislation. Harden Furniture is also a leader in environmental initiatives.

Harden Furniture has achieved certification from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative not only for its company-managed timber harvesting activities, but also its procurement and Land management systems. In addition to its SFI certification, the company is also an active member in the New York State Tree Farm Assn. and the Empire State Forest Products Assn.

Recently, Wood & Wood Products talked with Harden about his plans for the New York State Environmental Board and his views on sustainability.

Wood & Wood Products: What goals do you hope to achieve in your new position on the New York State Environmental Board?

Greg Harden: I would say I'm Looking forward to helping New York move forward, not just from an environmental protection standpoint, but also from a responsible development standpoint.

W&WP: What environmental policies have you set your sights on for changing while in your new position?

Harden: I don't know if there's been anything that I've necessarily set my sights on. The environmental board has recently been involved in brownfield legislation. I think that the state has made great strides in making it easier to redevelop brownfield sites so that we can retain open space and green space around a Lot of our municipal areas. That's going to be very helpful.

Brownfields are old abandoned industrial sites. Developers and investors have always been very, very reluctant to redevelop them because of contamination and pollution reliability issues. Legislation will be passed that's going to make it more attractive for developers to redevelop those sites so we don't have all of these abandoned industrial sites sort of on the fringe of our metropolitan areas, only to have development and industrial sites move further out into what is currently farmland, or green space, or open space and build warehouses or light manufacturing facilities there.

The other issue that's been part of our agenda at the environmental board has been mercury emission standards. Increasingly, the electrical plants that are being built are coal-fired. One of the truly dangerous bi-products from a coal-fired power plant is mercury. It's in trace amounts--you measure it in pounds per year--but even a Little bit of mercury throughout the environment is toxic. Fortunately, with some of the pollution control equipment that's available today, we're able to not only reduce a lot of particulate emission and nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxides, but also we're able to affect, to a degree, some of the mercury that's emitted from these plants.

I don't know what the agenda's going to be for the environmental board coming up. We have a new governor, things are in a Little bit of a state of flux, but I'm sure that there are going to be a lot of issues to come to the environmental board that really impact our industry, particularly forestry issues. We certainly support efforts to preserve forested land in New York State. We certainly are supportive of any forestry practices being sustainable and complying with best practices. At the same time, it can't be so restrictive that folks can't practice forestry.

W&WP: What environmental policies do you currently have in place at your company?

Harden: We participate in SFI, which is the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. All of our 10,000 acres are enrolled in SFI. We work with all of the independent land owners we purchase timber from to make sure that they're using best practices on their property. There are a lot of different indicators. It's everything from managing the harvest properly, to protecting watersheds, to wildlife diversity. There are a lot of different issues when you start talking about best practices for harvesting timber and for managing timber properties. That's probably first and foremost for us from an environmental standpoint.

At the same time we're always looking for ways to reduce VOC emissions, to perhaps reduce our carbon footprint by emitting less carbon dioxide from our boilers, which are wood-fired. It's an ongoing process here and hopefully over the next few years we'll continue to make the progress that we have over the last few.

W&WP: How do you plan to raise public awareness of conservation and the environment?

Harden: We're participating with a number of other furniture manufacturers in what has just been titled the Sustainable Furniture Council (SFC). That group is just beginning to get organized. They're just beginning to accept members, develop bylaws and establish some objectives for the group. I think that will go a long way towards raising awareness. We certainly include SFI and those kinds of things in our advertising. We make it a point to talk about those kinds of issues every time we have an opportunity.

W&WP: Whet is the purpose of the Sustainable Furniture Council?

Harden: The mission of SFC is to promote sustainable practices and awareness of sustainability in the home furnishings industry.

The organization is brand new, the board has just been formed, the mission statement is still in draft form and we have perhaps 15 members at this time. It is anticipated that we will be over 100 members by Market.

The first meetings were held in October of 2005, but it is just now transitioning from an idea to a formal organization.

I am a director of SFC and on the standards committee. With my SFI experience, which includes third party audits, etc., the standards committee was a good fit. Harden was one of the founding members of SFC and we feel we bring a lot of credibility to the table as we are perhaps the leader among residential manufacturers in sustainability.

I hope SFC will raise awareness with retailers and consumers--that they will support companies that are committed to sustainability and who practice sustainability in their manufacturing processes.

W&WP: What do you feel are the largest barriers that green initiatives have to overcome to be accepted in the woodworking industry?

Harden: I think there's a perception that green is more expensive, both by producers and by consumers.

W&WP: And you find that it isn't?

Harden: We don't feel it is. In all honesty, we feel that using best practices and enrolling our properties in SFI has made us more efficient. In the long run, those stands of timber are going to be healthier, they'll regenerate better.

We are very thorough in collecting data. We're very deliberate in how we plan and conduct harvests and monitor regeneration after a harvest. We've learned a lot through the process. It really has allowed us to improve our practices dramatically.

Editor's Note: See additional in-formation at www.iswonline.com.