High Point, NC (February 21, 2005) – A voluntary environmental management system created by the American Home Furnishings Alliance has helped two manufacturers – Vaughan and La-Z-Boy Utah – earn special recognition from state-level environmental quality programs.

Both companies based their programs on AHFA’s EFEC program. EFEC stands for “Enhancing Furniture’s Environmental Culture.” It is a voluntary environmental management system created by AHFA to keep home furnishings manufacturers in step with environmental legislation and regulation.

Vaughan Furniture’s E.C. Dodson plant in Galax, Va., has received the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program’s “Exemplary Environmental Enterprise” designation. The recognition is awarded to Virginia facilities that have developed and implemented a comprehensive environmental management system with a commitment to pollution prevention.

“I used the EFEC program from AHFA to meet most of the requirements of the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program,” says Neil Anderson, Vaughan’s safety director and environmental manager. “The programs are very similar and the EFEC elements satisfied several conditions in the application for the state environmental program.”

As part of EFEC and the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program, Vaughan’s E.C. Dodson plant reduced its emissions and instituted several recycling and energy-saving programs, as well as employee and community awareness initiatives. As part of the recycling effort, the plant recycled 100,000 pounds of cardboard in 2004.

Vaughan is the second furniture plant in Virginia to achieve recognition as an Exemplary Environmental Enterprise. The first was Stanley Furniture’s Martinsville, Va., plant, which was the first EFEC-certified manufacturing facility.

In September 2003, plant management at La-Z-Boy Utah decided to enhance their environmental performance by implementing EFEC. Their EFEC certification, earned in May 2004, resulted in the facility being accepted into the Clean Utah! Program developed by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. The program recognizes and rewards facilities that take steps beyond those required by law to prevent or reduce pollution.

“La-Z-Boy Utah has reaped many benefits from the EFEC program,” explains Michael Hewett, director of environmental affairs. “One of the items identified by the facility assessment was the inefficient use of energy. A steam absorption chiller was replaced with a state-of-the-art electric chiller. Total energy use in the plant decreased by 41 percent.”

Installation of the new chiller allowed the gas boiler to be shut down during the summer months, resulting in a 67 percent decrease in emissions from the boiler over the calendar year,” Hewett notes.

The plant also instituted a recycling program that resulted in an 88 ton per year reduction in waste disposal and a 10 percent increase in recycling. Not only did the change generate additional recycling revenue, it also saved money in waste hauling and landfill disposal fees.

Eight AHFA member company plants have been EFEC certified since the program’s launch in 1999. For more information on EFEC, contact AHFA’s Bill Perdue, vice president of environmental affairs, at 336/884-5000, ext. 117.