Today, The Joinery was named “Best for the Environment” for creating the most overall environmental impact. 63 companies across 30 industries and 11 countries were recognized by the nonprofit B Lab, with the release of the ‘B Corp Best for the Environment List’, a second installment in its ‘B Corp Best for the World’ series.
The Joinery’s mission is to build handcrafted furniture out of sustainably harvested materials, creating an environment that helps the employees and surrounding community thrive. This includes large efforts such as turning all wood waste into free briquettes for the public, donations to local schools and non-profit auctions, using only solar energy or purchasing wind –off set energy and by building a product that is guaranteed for 200 years.
Method Products, New Belgium Brewing Company, Patagonia and Seventh Generation were also recognized as leaders in environmental performance. Other honorees include Mas Ambiente, an Argentinian company producing handmade soap from used cooking and frying oil, Namaste Solar, a solar energy, employee-owned cooperative and New Leaf Paper, a developer and distributor of environmentally-responsible paper products. The ‘B Corp Best for the Environment’ companies come from over 30 different industries and 11 countries. 30% of honorees are based outside the US, with 8 companies operating in emerging markets. (Full list of honorees below.)
The ‘B Corp Best for the Environment List’ honors businesses that earned an overall score in the top 10% of all Certified B Corporations for their positive environmental impact, as measured by the B Impact Assessment, a comprehensive assessment used by more than 8,000 businesses to measure their impact on their workers, community, and the environment. This analysis includes metrics regarding their environmentally preferable products, services, and practices, such as their materials, waste, water, and energy inputs/outputs and the environmental impact of their offices, plants, land, suppliers and transportation. Below are some of the photos of our environmental efforts.
Our woodshop currently has a dust collection system, that takes all sawdust out to our briquetter and turns them into the briquettes shown below.
Much of our scrap wood gets turned into breadboards that we donate to any non-profit auction in Portland. We donate hundreds of these boards a year.
