GSA Announces Evergreen Award Winners
Press Release
For Immediate Release
GSA Evergreen Awards Presented to
Sharp, Spectrum Industries and The Mohawk Group
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the presentation of the 2007 GSA Evergreen Awards to Sharp Electronics Corporation (Technologies & Electronics), Spectrum Industries (Furniture) and The Mohawk Group (Furnishings) on December 13, 2007. Jack Wise, Acting Director of GSA’s National Furniture Acquisition Center, presented the awards to each of the companies.
Sharp, the recipient of the Evergreen Award under the Technologies and Electronics industry category, holds MAS contracts for copier products, multi-function devices, and LCD panels and projectors. Sharp is the world’s leading manufacturer of solar cells and panels and has received accolades from various government and industry associations for their environmentally conscious efforts. Sharp’s newest “super green” factories recycle 100% of their wastewater and have zero discharge to landfills. In addition to reducing the negative environmental impacts in production facilities, Sharp is working to “lead the way into an era of clean energy” by expanding the use of solar power. The company sees this as both an environmental and social responsibility. In March of 2007, Sharp won the prestigious American Business Award for Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program for a charity reconstruction project in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the company installed 10 new Sharp solar power systems in homes severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Spectrum Industries, a small business located in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, received the Evergreen Award under the Furniture category. Spectrum is a provider of a wide variety of office furniture including tables, chairs, workstations, filing and storage cabinets, racks and accessories. Spectrum has become a model facility in both their industry and community by implementing environmental sustainability initiatives that include waste prevention, material recovery and recycling, and environmentally conscious product design. Since 1998, Spectrum has used powder-coating technology as a replacement for solvent- based finishes, reducing the combined air emissions of Volatile Organix Compounds (VOCs) by sixty percent. Spectrum has also teamed up with another firm, Comprehensive Recycling, to collect and recover plastic material resulting from the manufacturing process for recycling and reuse. When Spectrum acquired a new manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters in 2005, they purchased several acres of wetland which they will continue to preserve in all future expansions and facility improvements. In 2007, Spectrum installed a new environmentally conscious paint line and wash system in this facility, which saves energy by operating at room temperature, eliminating the need to heat the wash solution. During the wash any excess cleaning solution is captured, filtered and recycled.
The Mohawk Group, a leader in the world’s commercial flooring industry, received the Evergreen Award under the Furnishings category. Mohawk has made significant investments in state-of-the-art technologies to create environmentally friendly products while implementing sustainable practices both inside and outside of their facilities across the nation. Recycled materials in Mohawk’s five brands including Karastan, Lees, Mohawk Commercial, Bigelow Commercial and Durkan Hospitality have kept more than 17 billion plastic bottles and 720,000 tires out of landfills. Mohawk has recently developed the technology to produce a modular carpet backing called Encycle that is 100% thermoplastic, PVC free and contains 35 percent post-industrial recycled content by total weight. Mohawk plans to convert all of its products to the Encycle backing system by 2008. In addition to their commitment of advancing environmentally friendly technological solutions, Mohawk strives to preserve natural resources in local communities. Since 1987 Lees Carpets, a division of the Mohawk Group, has been a member of the Business for the Bay organization which reduces and prevents pollution in the waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay. Mohawk’s facility in Glasgow, Viriginia is located near the Jefferson National Forest on the headwaters of the James River and is monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the National Forest Service. The facility has made substantial improvements in environmental impact, reducing water usage by 84 percent, solid waste by 53 percent, and increasing the use of recycled materials by 128 percent.
GSA is a centralized federal procurement and property management agency created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public. GSA provides federal agencies with office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies and services. GSA also supports U.S. federal civilian and military activities around the world by providing products and services to sailors, soldiers, airman and marines in support of their global missions. Comprised of 13,000 associates, GSA provides services and solutions for the office operations of over one million federal workers located in more than 8,000 government-owned and leased buildings in 2,000 U.S. communities. GSA is also responsible for overseeing the government’s inter-agency fleet operations and has more than 53,000 alternative fuel vehicles in its fleet that run on ethanol, methanol, natural gas and electricity.
