The Green UItimatum

摘要

Office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc. may be one of the few manufacturers that can truly claim an enterprisewide legacy of environmental stewardship. Unlike companies that only in recent years have begun touting waste-saving initiatives as "green" projects, the $1.6 billion manufacturer traces its history of environmental awareness back to the 1950s when founder D.J. DePree opened work areas to natural light by locating employees no more than 75 feet from a window.rnIn 1997, DePree's vision led the company to implement a product-design concept that requires its suppliers to help incorporate more environmentally friendly materials into the finished product. The company says it's difficult to measure whether the program has yielded significant investment returns from the purchase of higher-cost materials, but President and CEO Brian Walker says there's definitely a business case to be made for greener supply chains.