Steelcase is the global leader in creating products and solutions for offices, schools, health care facilities, and other types of workplaces. Over 100 years old, Steelcase is the largest global furnishings and work environment company with about $3 billion USD in sales, more than 800 dealer partners, and 1,700 patents worldwide. In the last five years alone, it has served over 110,000 companies.
During past decades, Steelcase has successfully set and achieved its sustainability objectives. The inspiration and support for sustainability at the company initially came from an influential trustee, Peter Wege, the son of a founder of the company and an avid environmentalist. For him, the essence of sustainability was in people and doing good. “Do all the good you can, for as many people as you can, for as long as you can,” he often said.This philosophy has been the bedrock of Steelcase’s sustainability efforts for many years. It drives the company to set and meet ambitious targets for reducing emissions, energy, water, and waste. It has also inspired Steelcase’s product design strategy and deep investments in materials chemistry. Knowing the innovation potential of sustainability and the benefits to customers and society, the company now has pilots and partnerships that build out the business case for a circular economy.In 2018, China banned importing most recyclable commodities, which directly impacted the market globally as well as Steelcase’s local markets, and limited the company's ability to recycle certain commodities that had been easily recyclable like shrink wrap, plastic wrap, and foam wrap. To ensure that these materials avoided landfills, Steelcase developed a partnership with Trex—the leading recycled materials manufacturer of wood-alternative decking, railings, and other outdoor items—to obtain and reuse these recyclable materials from Steelcase.The Steelcase-Trex partnership started small, with a pilot at its Kentwood, Michigan, location. Once the system was established and perfected, it was scaled to the company’s five other Michigan sites. The project entails collecting plastic wrap in bags, which are then baled, stored on site, and transferred to Trex every quarter, depending on Steelcase’s production schedule. Trex coordinates its pickups with a nearby company involved in a similar program to reduce the hauling for both sites and optimize plastic bale loads.Steelcase was able to negotiate sending materials to Trex instead of the landfill to support Trex’s feedstock needs for plastic decking products. This took a wholesale change in Steelcase operations to collect, bale, and transport the material to Trex, which involved buy-in from multiple internal stakeholders like Steelcase’s logistics, materials, plant managers, and sustainability teams.To make the project a success, there were a few challenges to consider and design around. For example, there were initial ergonomic concerns from the contractors baling the materials. After several discussions and considering various options, Steelcase and other stakeholders concluded that bagging the material would be most efficient so that the materials were easier to grab and bale. Steelcase also realized that in order to avoid cross-contamination of materials, it needed to dedicate a baler in each location to processing only one material and transport materials to be baled between locations.The outcomes from the Steelcase-Trex partnership are impressive. It has positively impacted Steelcase’s landfill diversion goals of 25% by 2020 by diverting 45 tons from landfill since the project started in June 2018. In addition, it has reduced Steelcase’s need for virgin materials and production and provides feedstock to Trek for its wood-alternative decking. As a result of this progress, total annual savings are roughly $60,000 given the landfill diversions and hauling cost savings.Several lessons have been learned from the partnership. Early buy-in from both internal and external stakeholders made the process smoother, which was facilitated by calculating and demonstrating the cost-savings opportunities and ROI to make the case for the project. Further, support from senior management and plant managers and detailed, frequent communications about the project helped garner the approval of employees.Going forward, Steelcase will continue the recycling project in its Michigan sites and is exploring how to scale it to other locations in the U.S. and Mexico.
