The Taylor Companies
The Taylor Companies, is also a Pioneer Winner – in operation for 195 years. Taylor, based in Bedford, Ohio and with a second location in Lynwood, California, is a seventh generation furniture manufacturer and a green pioneer in a traditional industry. Both Taylor factories build their office furniture from scratch using domestically sourced raw materials from local suppliers whenever possible.
The firm’s Ohio factory is located on a former brownfield site that the company helped to remediate. Taylor’s California facility has all new lighting, resulting in a 46% reduction in electricity consumption for lighting and a 50,000-pound reduction in carbon emissions. The firm uses energy efficient equipment and diverts much of its process waste from landfill, with a goal of 75% diversion by 2012. Taylor is the first furniture manufacturer member of The Climate Registry; the firm publishes its greenhouse gas emissions and other key sustainability information (waste diversion, water use, people initiatives) on a Sustainability Facts Label that is included with all its products. The firm has a GHG emission reduction plan in place and has conducted a Life Cycle Assessment of its products. In 2009, Taylor became the first company in Ohio to be GreenPlus™ certified.
Many of Taylor’s 60 full time employees are union members (Steelworkers in Ohio and Carpenters in California), and its office workers receive the same high level of benefits. These include a 90% employer-paid health care package, pension and 401(k), as well as cross training. Employees volunteer for local education and sustainability programs, and CEO Jeff Baldassari has shared the firm’s innovations via speaking engagements at business schools and design schools throughout the state of Ohio. Taylor employees also created a continuing education course for designers titled “A Sustainable Approach.” In February, Taylor was named the 2011 Sustainable Enterprise of the Year by the Institute for Sustainable Development in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
