Herman Miller’s GreenHouse Facility: Springing into Full Bloom

If you’ve ever meandered the paths in the rolling landscape around Herman Miller’s GreenHouse facility, you might not think you’re on the grounds of a manufacturing plant. But flowers and trees and critters are exactly what you’ll find surrounding the GreenHouse. Even the name of the building reminds you of the natural environment.

The bees in the apiary on the east end of the property pollinate this landscape and help it to blossom each spring and summer. (Learn more about Herman Miller’s honey bees in this video, “Sweeter Solution.”)

Facing north, truck trailers are framed by a hillside designed to be left wild.

Just over the rise is a pond where geese congregate and a pair of resident swans call home. This landscape—in all its wildness—is not the result of a neglectful, uncaring owner. Instead it’s an example of how Herman Miller incorporates our environmental policy to provide green spaces around each of our facilities.

I’m sure many of us drive to and from work, hardly noticing the beauty of our surroundings. Personally, I enjoy taking a closer look at the residents we share this space with: Songbirds, bees, dragonflies, butterflies, ducks, geese, and swans—just to name a few—call this space home. We pass these neighbors every day to enter our workplace, which sits in the middle of their outdoor habitat.

Even the grass at this facility is special. Instead of the usual manicured lawns that adorn most commercial building grounds, Herman Miller has chosen a variety of buffalo grass, which requires less water than other grasses, and very little mowing. Every few years, we conduct a controlled burn, which helps the grass thrive the same way it would in a wild environment.

For much of the year, all around the GreenHouse the grounds bloom with a variety of wildflowers and provide habitat for a multitude of creatures. It’s one way we help create a better world around us.

To Compost or Not to Compost? That Was Never the Question

Last summer, I was walking through the plant at Herman Miller’s GreenHouse facility and spotted a twin-drum Mantis composter. Being an avid gardener, I was thrilled to see that our environmental team was considering a composting system for the cafeteria.

As it sat unused, I began inquiring: What’s up with the composter? The answer, it turned out, was that the cafeteria would indeed be composting, but through an outsourced vendor. So the staff was looking for an organization that would benefit from a composter loan and provide feedback on its use.
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