The 2024 Wisconsin 75 Distinguished Performer Award went to GREEN BAY–KI in the sustainability category. This was given in honor of the furniture maker’s efforts to make its processes and goods less harmful to the environment.
The Wisconsin 75 program, put on by Deloitte, honors big privately owned companies with headquarters in Wisconsin and shows how they improve the state’s economy and neighborhoods.
Tom Abrahamson, KI’s vice president of industrial operations, said that this award shows how hard their employee-owners work and how dedicated they are to being environmentally friendly.
“Because we are employee-owned, we are proud of what we make and how we make it,” he said. “We support local manufacturing to make sure that future generations will have a healthy world to live in.”
Abrahamson explained that KI’s approach to environmental responsibility is based on three main areas: operations and manufacturing, material safety, and the life cycle of the product.
Last year, he said that KI was able to cut its energy use by 23.1% and greenhouse gas emissions by 17% compared to the same time last year.
The business puts money into renewable energy and makes its goods from healthy, non-toxic materials that have a lot of recycled content.