Cabinetry by Karman is proud to be a certified member of the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association’s Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP). The ESP program establishes a measurable benchmark for environmental excellence. This certification validates our adherence to high standards for air quality, product resource management, process resource management, environmental stewardship and community relations. Cabinetry by Karman, along with our parent company, Wellborn Cabinet, Inc., have committed to recertify annually as the program adopts new industry standards and practices. Karman’s demonstrated commitment to the Environmental Stewardship Program offers our consumers the assurance they are purchasing products from a company that values environmental responsibility.
Cabinetry by Karman successfully maintains a perfect environmental compliance record with State and Federal agencies. Additionally, Karman supports sound environmental practices including using green products whenever possible, purchasing recycled materials, minimizing the quantity of waste our processes generate, and responsibly recycling those wastes we are not yet able to eliminate.
Cabinetry by Karman is committed to reducing waste through improved use of material. Steps have been added into our manufacturing process, while more time consuming, allow us to reduce our levels of scrapped hardwoods and reduce the amount of material going to our landfills. We have seen a 6.5% improvement in material yield in the last year alone. This equates to approximately 4 tons of material that have been eliminated from our waste stream since 2008.
The GreenGuard Environmental Institute (GEI) oversees third-party certification programs that identify acceptable product emission standards and certify low-emitting products. This certification provides third-party verification that a product does not exceed low-emitting standards as currently being required by numerous government purchasing and green building programs. We use waterborne paints which generate very few adverse emissions. Their use reduces exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. Waterborne paints have been evaluated as alternatives to solvent-based paints and are used exclusively in our antiquing and glazing processes. Karman also deploys equipment that reduces batch sizes, eliminates paint waste, and recaptures UV topcoat overspray from used solvents. These materials are recycled internally by Karman and reused in our processes. Customers have the option to request GreenGuard certified clear-coats on their products.
We have extensively trained our staff in proper recycling practices. We constantly work to assure that our procedures recycle as many raw materials as we can by benchmarking our annual recyling levels and setting and reporting quarterly goals to exceed such each year. Since August of 2009 through August, 2010, we have recycled many of the materials that would otherwise have ended up in the landfill stream. We have aggressively set annual goals for recycling the following materials: wood scrap, cardboard and used paper, plastic and scrap metal.