Matthew Howsare, chief of staff for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, will address furniture industry issues at the Feb. 22-23 AHFA Sustainability Summit in Raleigh, N.C.
Howsare's topics will include an update on the federal upholstered furniture flammability standard and the impact of the growing environmental backlash focused on flame retardant chemicals.
Registration remains open for the 2012 Sustainability Summit, sponsored by the American Home Furnishings Alliance(http://www.ahfa.us) and dedicated to advancing sustainable business practices in the home furnishings industry.
Best practices that help companies meet their sustainability objectives in a manner that supports their overall business goals is the focus of the Summit, being held at the Renaissance Raleigh North Hills Hotel in Raleigh, N.C.
Registration for the 2012 Sustainability Summit is available online here under EVENTS. Registration is $325 for AHFA members and $500 for non-members. The AHFA rate is also available to members of the Sustainable Furnishings Council.
Titled "Racing Beyond Expectations: Best Practices Fueling the Industry’s Sustainability Successes," the Summit opens at 9 a.m. on Feb. 22 with keynote speaker Michael Lynch, managing director of NASCAR Green Innovation. Since 2008, Lynch has built the largest recycling program in sports, diverting more than 1,000 tons of material from landfills in 2011. In addition to extensive recycling, the program includes introducing biofuels to all three of NASCAR's major races and working to popularize environmental behavior within NASCAR's estimated audience of 75 million people.
Additional Summit presentations on Feb. 22 include:
* Green Innovations Changing the Industry Right Now: Furniture Packaging from Ultra-Rapid Renewables. At its manufacturing facility in Green Island, N.Y., Ecovative produces innovative packaging material out of cotton-seed hulls and mushroom roots. Steelcase is using Ecovative’s sustainable packaging to replace expanded polystyrene previously used to ship ready-to-assemble office furniture – a solution that provides better protection and far less environmental impact for the same cost. Ecovative co-founder, Sam Harrington, will offer Summit attendees a quick course on “ultra-rapid renewables” and explain their current application for furniture packaging – as well as some intriguing raw material applications for the furniture industry being explored by Ecovative R&D.
