Happy Earth Day

As a company we’re proud of our commitment to the environment. Did you know we’ve set a goal to get to a zero operational footprint by 2020?  You can read more about that here. My favorite ‘green’ story is beautifully told in the video below. It’s a story of a green building (pictured above), wasps, bees and lots of sweet honey.

The GreenHouse mentioned in the video was designed by architect William McDonough in 1995. This is where our Aeron, Mirra, Embody, SAYL and Setu chairs are produced. And it’s where my boss has her office. I’ve spent a bit of time in this building – summer and winter – and I can attest to its comfort. The temperature always feels just right and the natural light that streams onto the factory floor makes for a beautiful workspace.

Happy Earth Day!

The Bees

There are bees at Herman Miller. Lots of them. I’d read about the them and watched the video. It wasn’t until yesterday, after a long afternoon in archives that I decided to traipse out and see them for myself. First, forget the bees, I’ve never seen so many crickets in my life. The wide mown path that leads to the hives was home to probably 50,000 of the critters who scattered (I hope) at my every step. The yellow and white wooden hives are neatly arranged in a field across from the GreenHouse (the place where, among other things, Aeron chairs are assembled and my boss works). The award-winning building was designed by William McDonough + Partners in 1995. Part of the design includes the open meadow and wetland around the building that processes and purifies the building’s stormwater. The meadow also means there’s less lawn to water, mow and less need for herbicides and pesticides. You can see from the pictures this certainly makes a very nice environment for a bee.