Doing the right thing

Doing the right thing

Do today’s average company employees lose any sleep about the environmental impact of their desks, chairs or filing cabinets?

To be honest, I don’t think they do. Everyone will be more than happy to know that their work environment is environmentally friendly; few will make it a minimal condition for whether or not they want to work somewhere. Not that this is necessary, but there are currently no regulations governing this. There is almost nothing to put a stop to what is produced or what is sold.

The environment has now become “sexy”; especially on the consumer market. Families are gradually starting to adopt more conscious, green buying patterns. With the exception of the green energy market, there is no such pronounced trend occurring within the B2B market. One or two within the market are taking account of the environmental impact of products in a fundamental way, but these are mainly government institutions.

Why should a manufacturer of office furniture then go to such great lengths to ensure that their products have less environmental impact than comparable products? As yet, an incredible economic opportunity is not currently one of the options; it is rather a matter of pioneering work.

The reason lies in having a healthy, ethical starting point: doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is not just about doing what gives the best return economically.

Let’s consider desk work surfaces for a minute. The largest (heaviest) part of a desk is actually made of wood. Wood is therefore a substantial component of office furniture, which is why it deserves a lot of consideration.

This is why we did everything we could to have the Mewaf factory “PEFC” certified. Manufacturers are only awarded a PEFC certificate if the wood or wood products that are purchased and processed originate from forests that are managed sustainably. PEFC is an international organisation (see www.PEFC.com) that recognises and checks all sustainable players (from forester, logger to processing plants) within the timber production and timber trade sectors.

This means that we don’t have anything to do with illegal deforestation, social exploitation or economic exploitation. This is nothing out of the ordinary to us; for us, this is “doing the right thing”.

No nature needs to be lost purely because of economic growth. On the contrary, economic growth and the maintenance and improvement of the environment need to go hand in hand.

Does it stop here? No, definitely not. We need to continue looking for even better alternatives. We need to listen more (and more carefully) to environmental organisations, customers, employees and everyone who can teach us what the right thing to do is, or what it should be.

Bert Struyve

Environment coordinator
Van Marcke Group
Mewaf is member of the Van Marcke Group