GRAND RAPIDS–Officials at Steelcase Inc. have announced a commitment to a net-zero future, reducing its carbon emissions over 90% throughout its entire value chain, through its products, operations, and transportation, by 2050.
Steelcase released an industry-first net-zero transition plan, “Power of Possibility: A Net-Zero Future Needs Us All.” This plan outlines how the company is taking bold and decisive action on its path to net zero. Steelcase aims to transform its entire business, reducing carbon emissions from the products it makes, how the products are made and the ways products are delivered. Steelcase also is using this moment as a call to action to accelerate its impact by engaging employees, dealers, suppliers, customers and peers to achieve a net-zero future.
This commitment builds on the organization’s science-based targets set in 2019 to cut emissions in half in its own operations by 2030. The science-based targets initiative, the leading authority guiding businesses on how much and how quickly they need to cut carbon emissions to reduce the impacts of climate change, validated the company’s near-term and new net-zero targets.
“We are at a moment of transformation for our business and for the world we share,” Steelcase President and CEO Sara Armbruster said in a news release. “The reality of climate change demands that people and the planet are central to the choices we make to forge a more resilient future. This is why we already have established some of the most ambitious carbon-reduction goals at a greater global scale than anyone in our industry. Yet, we know there’s more to do. We are going beyond thinking about sustainability one product at a time, to transforming the way we do business now and into the future. The commitment allows us to better serve our customers by helping them reach their own sustainability goals.”
The company’s long history of a commitment to designing better futures for the wellbeing of people and the planet is demonstrated through three key areas: reducing its carbon footprint, designing for circularity and choosing and using materials responsibly. Steelcase was the industry’s first manufacturer to become carbon neutral, first to set science-based targets to reduce its emissions from its operations 50% by 2030, first to set the industry’s most ambitious supplier engagement targets, partnering with suppliers to set their own science-based targets, and the first, and only, to offer CarbonNeutral certified products.
“Our long history of commitment to the planet laid the foundation for greater impact through collective action,” Armbruster said. “Through this work, we are transforming our business to drive innovative solutions, engage our suppliers and discover new ways to serve our customers. The progress we’ve already made sets the foundation for a net-zero future.”
Steelcase has been recognized by leading third parties for its work. CDP (originally the Carbon Disclosure Project) rated the company top in its industry for climate change disclosure and as a supplier engagement leader. Last year, Steelcase earned a Gold Rating from EcoVadis, a leading provider of business sustainability ratings, including a perfect score on its environmental scorecard, and received the Better Practice award from the U.S. Department of Energy Better Plants program. Steelcase also continues to lead the industry with the most BIFMA, the Business and Institutional Furniture and Manufacturers Association, Level certified products, which certifies products to the highest standards for sustainable design.
To learn more about Steelcase and its work to create better futures for People and the Planet, visit Steelcase.com/people-planet.
Established in 1912, Steelcase is a global design, research, and office furniture manufacturer with more than 30 creative and technology partner brands. Steelcase has 770 dealers, as well as an online store and other retail partners. Steelcase is a publicly traded company with fiscal year 2024 revenue of $3.2 billion and 11,300 global employees.
