We've Been Lean. Now's the Time for Green.
Banks Hardwoods is taking efficiency to the next level – professionally & personally.

It seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon these days. That’s a good thing. But it’s easy to talk green. It’s another thing to live green. Doing so requires raising our level of awareness about our environment, how we are affecting it, and what changes and sacrifices we can make to help do our share.

After much soul searching and evaluation of our company values, strategies and goals, we decided to embark on a new green journey – one that involves setting environmental goals, something we really hadn’t done before. Our mission is to minimize the negative effects on our environment as we go about our business.

Our E-Mission As we strive to produce the highest possible quality lumber and provide the best customer service to our customers, we will do everything within our means to minimize the negative effects on our environment.

Cost and Benefits
We can accomplish this goal while improving the environment our employees work in, improving our community, conserving resources, becoming more efficient and saving money, not to mention feeling better about ourselves. These are all great benefits from simply doing the right thing. Of course, there are costs and sacrifices associated with these changes but it’s all worth it. It’s the right thing to do.

Our Current Position
At present, we do not have company owned timberlands to certify. I wish we did so we could offer our customers certified material. We believe we can still offer additional value to our customers by 'going green.' I’m content knowing we are doing everything we can inside our business to act responsibly and manage in a more sustainable way. We are very interested in pursuing voluntary acts of sustainability rather than to wait for more regulation. We all feel better about our business and our business management having a program like this in place.

Lean manufacturing is still a great concept for any business to pursue in order to improve and stay in business. A solid environmental program is a compliment to that. Chances are if you’re striving to be either lean or green you will enhance your business and your bottom line. A green program gives everyone one more opportunity to be involved and engaged with the business.

Steps We've Taken
We began by doing the little things like turning off the lights, lowering the heat or turning up the air conditioning a few degrees. Then we started converting to new, more efficient light bulbs (CFL’s). And we began recycling everything. Then we started looking at bigger things like water and electricity usage and we’re now beginning to pursue tree farming and supporting worthy environmental causes. What’s good for us may not be good for other companies. We all have to choose a shade of green that we are comfortable with and strive to achieve it.

The "Go Green" Purpose
Our "Go Green" web page is a way for us to organize our green program, keep it updated and keep our employees informed and better educated as to what we’re doing. We understand that the key to our success is to communicate to everyone what we are doing, why we are doing it, and the importance of it; to educate, inspire and influence as many people as we can to join in the cause. We are starting with our employees and hopefully that will spread to their family lives. From there if we can reach our customers and suppliers and others in our industry and beyond, then we have really done something. For now, we are just getting started on our journey. Enjoy our environmental web page; learn what we’re doing. Please start your own green program at home or at work. And please feel free to contact us and share your experiences and ideas.