Steelcase Releases 2016 Corporate Sustainability Report

Company Celebrates Achievements in Sustainability, Community Involvement and Diversity  

Dubai, UAE, January 3, 2017:  Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) is celebrating notable progress of the company’s sustainable performance around the world with the release of its 2016 Corporate Sustainability Report. Over the past year, Steelcase pursued a number of continuous and coordinated efforts to demonstrate the company’s commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen and partnering with customers, dealers, suppliers and communities to make meaningful change. Last year, the company made notable progress on its environmental 2020 goals, set a record of employee volunteerism and received recognition of its diversity and inclusion programs.  

“At Steelcase our purpose – to unlock human promise – is fundamentally grounded in sustainability,” said Jim Keane, president and chief executive officer of Steelcase. “We’re pushing ourselves to think differently and I’m proud of our successes this year, driven by employees around the world at all levels of the organization.”

Specific highlights from the 2016 report include: 

• Progress Toward Environmental Goals: Steelcase remained focused on reducing its global environmental footprint by 25% by the year 2020. This year the company continued driving improvements. Since the 2010 baseline, Steelcase has reduced:
  • VOC emissions by 75%
  • Water use by 9%
  • Waste output by 44%
• Closing the Loop: End-of-use and performance management services saved clients more than $2.3 million through reuse of existing furniture assets and diverted more than 6.4 million pounds of furniture product from landfills through recycling, charitable reuse and resale activities. In Europe, specifically, EcoServices diverted the equivalent of more than eight Olympic-sized swimming pools of office materials from the landfill. 
• A New Record for Volunteering: Steelcase employees around the world volunteered a record total of 38,913 hours – triple last year’s total.
• A Golden Anniversary: Steelcase celebrated more than 50 years of partnering with the United Way to support and invest in local communities.
• Investing in Community: Steelcase and the Steelcase Foundation together donated more than $5.7 million to charities and organizations focused on human service, health, education, community development, the arts and the environment. 

Over the last year, Steelcase’s achievements were recognized by leading organizations, including: 

• Achieved a perfect score in the 2016 Corporate Equality Index, a benchmarking tool on policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees
• Fortune magazine’s 2016 “World’s Most Admired Companies,” named for the tenth time 
• 2016 Civic 50, honored by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in America
• Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids Collaborative Partner Award for Steelcase’s assistance in the creation of Goodwill’s new Workforce Development office
• 2016 Best and Brightest Sustainable Companies in Michigan, honored by the Michigan Business & Professional Association

The 2016 Steelcase Corporate Sustainability Report provides a synthesis of qualitative reporting, quantifiable measurement and indicates the social performance throughout the company’s business and communities around the world.