Keilhauer Named Canada’s Greenest Employer for Fifth Consecutive Year

April 17, 2019 (Toronto)Announced today, Keilhauer has been recognized by Canada’s Top 100 Employers as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for 2019.

This marks the fifth consecutive year and sixth year overall that the company has accepted this prestigious award.  Canada's Greenest Employers recognizes companies that are leading the nation in building a culture of environmental awareness in their organizations and have developed and implemented exceptional sustainability initiatives.

“At Keilhauer, developing sustainable products and manufacturing processes has been intrinsic to our company’s DNA since our inception,” said Mike Keilhauer, President, Keilhauer. “We are honoured to accept this prestigious award and we’re committed to continually improving our sustainability practices to achieve our corporate goal of closed loop manufacturing.”

In an effort to continuously reevaluate current sustainability practices and find ways to improve them, Keilhauer demonstrated its commitment to material health and product transparency in 2018. The company did this by assessing products for compliance with the Healthier Hospitals program (a strict healthy materials program that eliminates five harmful categories of chemicals from products) and published a document outlining which of its products were compliant with the program.

Ponder Chair

Ponder Chair
At Keilhauer, we are committed to manufacturing products that demonstrate material health, which is why we design our products using only safe, sustainable materials.

Ponder Chair
“With the health of our employees, our customers and the environment top of mind, our designers, engineers and sustainability experts are working closely to ensure that our products are designed using only safe, sustainable materials,” adds Josephine Abate, Sustainability Officer, Keilhauer.

Canada’s Greenest Employers evaluates each employer based on the unique environmental initiatives and programs they’ve developed, while analyzing the environmental footprint of their operations and the degree to which its employees are engaged. Companies are also assessed based on the extent to which their initiatives have become linked to their public identity.

Some additional accomplishments that earned Keilhauer recognition as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers include:

  • Zero waste to landfill
  • Near zero water usage during production
  • 100 percent electricity usage offset by purchasing renewable energy credits
  • SCS Indoor Advantage Gold Certification for all Keilhauer seating
    Sustainability-focused procurement practices
  • In-house waste reduction and recycling program with 90% waste diversion
  • Preventing packaging waste through re-usable shipping materials
  • Finding value in “waste” through unique recycling programs for textiles, personal safety items and more
  • Offering customers a Product Take-Back program that allows them to ship furniture back to Keilhauer’s Toronto facility for full recycling
  • Making product end of life disassembly and recycling instructions available to customers for all Keilhauer products
  • Implementing Keilhauer’s own Design for Environment Team that works to include the environment and lifecycle thinking into product design
  • Providing all Keilhauer employees with yearly sustainability training