MUSCATINE, Iowa– HNI Corporation and its family of brands have released their biennial Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report detailing the Muscatine corporation’s continued commitment to and progress towards a more inclusive, safe, and sustainable future.
As seen in the report, entitled Pioneering a More Sustainable Future, HNI is making progress on the company’s measurable goals contributing to its long-term growth and success.
The report, available here, includes stories and details of activities that HNI has undertaken to reduce energy use, emissions, and waste, and further integrate sustainability into HNI’s company culture.
“HNI is gaining momentum and making important strides toward our corporate CSR goals,” Jeff Lorenger, HNI Corporation’s chairman, president and CEO, said in a news release Thursday, July 13. “We are committed to the long-term success of HNI, which includes our commitment to the planet, the communities where we operate, and our members.”
The CSR report focuses on HNI’s progress and performance over 2021 and 2022. It includes results of a 2022 full materiality assessment that identified its strongest environmental and social priorities across its stakeholder groups.
In preparing the report, HNI worked with a third party to understand its greatest Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impacts, opportunities and risks as well as the influence of these on stakeholder decision making.
“In 2022, HNI celebrated 75 years of creating products that encourage collaboration and productivity in the workplace and warm memories at home …,” Mr. Lorenger wrote in the CEO message in the report. “Looking forward to our next 75 years, and beyond, we continue to build on our strong foundation and launch new initiatives to lead HNI into the future.”
HNI Corporation refers to its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy as CORE: Conscious Operations and Responsible Environments.
According to the report, HNI began aligning executive compensation with its sustainability goals in 2022. “In this way, we are strengthening and motivating our entire organization toward achieving the CSR goals outlined in this report,” Mr. Lorenger wrote.
Key highlights of the CSR Report include:
- Support for the local communities through continued commitment of 1% of pre-tax profits, including a new pledge of $1 million to the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine Mulberry Health Clinic project.
- Achievement of compliance with all Tier 1 suppliers on HNI Code of Conduct.
- Reduction of absolute combined Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 64% through sourcing of 100% renewable electricity for global operations.
- Continued progress on zero waste to landfill goal, with two facilities achieving zero waste and four additional facilities increasing diversion rates to above 84%.
- Elimination of 47% non recyclable foam in packaging towards a goal of 100% recyclable packaging.
- Progress to better understand the chemicals in manufactured products.
- Continued progress on diversity goals by increasing the number of women and ethnically diverse leaders.
- Creation of a more inclusive workplace and opportunities for members to connect through member resource groups, inclusive leader training, and member unconscious bias training.
“We are proud of our accomplishments but recognize there is always more to do,” Mr. Lorenger said in the report. “I am confident our history and commitment to transparency – ‘say what we do’” – and faithful execution – ‘do what we say’ – will drive us to build on our successes and achieve even more as a powerful, positive force, always looking for new ways to contribute to our communities.”
The CSR report comes on the heels of HNI’s $485 million acquisition of Kimball International Inc. on June 1. “As we continue to grow our family of brands with the addition of Kimball International, we collectively are committed to the long-term success of HNI, which includes our commitment to the objectives outlined in this report. Please join us on our journey,” Mr. Lorenger wrote.
