Introduction
Another year has passed, and we took this opportunity to look back while planning our next steps. HC invites you to see how we have invested our time and energy.
Take a look at “In A Year of HC, 2008.”
Let us know what you think.
Guiding Principles
Highland Craftsmen Inc. is a company whose mission since 1990 has been “to produce a product line that is harmonious with nature (green) and minimizes the impact of construction” in an area of the Blue Ridge Mountains where development was expanding quickly. We recognized that development would increase and we wanted to offer green, indigenous, building products that were historically appropriate to the area to create more harmonious, balanced living spaces. Today we maintain the same mission and have expanded our scope. We sell Bark House® Elements for the Whole Home™ in 40 states and see our role as a part of the larger whole.
We make only verifiable sustainability claims in adherence with Federal Trade mandates against greenwash and in support of their Environmental Marketing Guides.
HC began with the guiding principle, “Simply do your best, every time”. This guiding principle has broad implications and is evidenced throughout our relationships.
Bark House® Materials and Products: New Sophistication, Old World Inspiration
HC is proud that our Bark House brand materials and products are reclaimed waste from the forest industry. They are a part of sustainable forestry practices. We describe the sustainable practices for each Bark House® material and product in detail on our website and invite you to take a look, www.barkhouse.com.
Many of our Bark House materials and products use zero water and very little energy in their manufacturing process. By 2010, we will use water exclusively from rainwater catchment systems.
If glues or sealers are needed, we educate clients about quality green products to use. HC offers FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) products as well.
At Highland Craftsmen Inc we design, manufacture and sell Bark House® materials and products for the whole home, interior and exterior. That puts the point of your observation at the point of our sell. You can trust that your purchase is the best complete value available.
Supply Chain
HC practices and promotes ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry-. 90% of our raw materials come from a 100 mile radius and all within a 500 mile radius for our entire product line.
We initiated the only chain of custody documentation process for this industry. Every vendor supplying raw bark product must state where they got the bark from and where the log is going. The intent of our process is clearly to protect the reclaimed nature of our materials and sustainable forestry practices.
We take responsibility for sharing our commitment to sustainability up and down our entire supply chain, rewarding our vendors with increased business for partnering with us on this path to sustainability.
HC has initiated a Sustainable Forestry initiative plan that will not only impact our relationships with our supply chain in a positive way, but will provide a wider range of opportunity for the local land-owner that embraces sustainable forest management.
People
HC has a written Social Equity Code of Conduct as a baseline for employee, sub-contractor and vendor relations. We embrace the Global Sullivan Principles.
HC meets or exceeds all local health and safety codes. We perform documented safety checks at least monthly. We have a Registered Occupational Health Nurse on staff as well as a past GE Safety Officer. Every person in the facility views safety as a core part of their job and does monitoring upon every walk through the facility. We employ off duty police officers to maintain safety and security at the plant. The officers patrol the area to ensure that pedestrians remain in designated walk through corridors. We have begun changing out and retiring our squaring saws for new state of the art saws where saw blades detect contact with fingers and take measures to ensure that no serious injuries occur from that contact.
Wholistic health and safety are important to us. Employees are encouraged to take personal time to explore personal, spiritual, physical and family growth opportunities as they identify meaningful. HC takes every opportunity to integrate wellness in our daily practices. During warmer months, employees use our bike to do personal errands in town. We have installed a fully functional kitchen for meal preparation and a shower area for employee use.
We support social equity. HC is co-owned by a female in a male dominated industry and it is located in a tier one rural community, but more importantly the jobs that are created are primarily for individuals in the lowest income bracket. HC pays more for the “waste” bark than the logger gets for the tree itself, increasing individual’s financial gain two fold.
Planet
HC’s primary manufacturing facility is at 534 Oak Avenue, Spruce Pine N.C. The 3 acre site includes our main warehouse, sales office and shop; just shy of 8,000 square feet. It also includes a manufacturing area made up of the bark intake yard, squaring facility, state of the art drying kilns and employee park. We have maintained a compact footprint, so as to minimize impact on the surrounding neighborhood, but we have not spared a sophisticated desgin aspect for clients to enjoy. HC strives to integrate into the community by providing Green spaces and landscaping materials to buffer the industrial impact while creating beautiful designs.
HC has had an energy specialist/utility company audit to measure our conventional energy usage and we are implementing initiatives to reduce use. We are also replacing a portion of our energy with certified renewable energy. We have replaced outdated and inefficient equipment, identified and changed wasteful resource procedures, and implemented tighter operational controls. We have increased the use of day-lighting and instituted a fluorescent bulb exchange policy. Our new kilns are fitted with natural gas boilers that are an amazing 96% efficient. We are in the process of retrofitting old kilns with the same system.
We use no water in the manufacturing of our Bark House brand shingles, and the entire facility uses less water than the local small city drive-in restaurant.
When we started the re-paving process for our main parking lot, we discovered underground gas tanks. They were not registered with the state of North Carolina. Instead of covering up the tanks as previous owners had done, we dug them up and made a report to the state for formal monitoring.
HC has decreased our print habits in the office and only print documents that are absolutely necessary. All the leaves that are removed from the site are bagged and given to a local resident to use in his compost pile.
Our Community Profits as HC Profits
A company earning a Green Profit considers not just the wealth of one, but the prosperity of many as well as its short term and long term impact on the environment. Green profit is made when the society involved (the company’s suppliers, clients, and community) or anyone the business impacts benefits from the company’s services or existence. Green profit is made when the company does no harm to the environment or even improves environmental conditions in comparison to comparable service or product providers.
Systems thinking must be applied over time and at least three steps of removal from the process or product to make a green profit. This is a new kind of sophistication in thought and application. Education, research and experience create sophistication; add systems thinking and you have a wholistic or green approach.
Not only are the jobs we offer green collar, they cannot be outsourced to other locations. Why? Yellow Poplar has a specific region that it grows in. According to the National Forest Service, Yellow or Tulip Poplar “is most abundant and reaches its largest size in the valley of the Ohio River and on the mountain slopes of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The Appalachian Mountains and adjacent Piedmont running south from Pennsylvania to Georgia contained 75 percent of all yellow-poplar growing stock in 1974.” In our company alone, we have provided jobs to nearly 700 local vendors, which is pay that did not exist before we created this industry. We pay a living wage rather than minimum wage. Every job category from clerical to wood worker has a minimum wage specifically assigned to that position. At HC, we pay significantly above that specification for every job.
We made donations to several service organizations as well as donating an estimated 50 Cords of firewood in 2008 to a local church for distribution to low and fixed income families.
Reduce - Reuse - Recycle
Our Bark House brand shingles are all natural and are biodegradable after an 80 odd year life cycle of no chemical treatments, sealers or additives. They can be ground into mulch if desired. The small amount of waste we produce from our spring/summer manufacturing is burned in a furnace to produce heat and energy. Materials manufactured during fall/winter are wood scrap and donated to the local community as firewood. We use recycled packing/packaging materials directly from our shredder box. Otherwise, shipping accessories are minimal and include a pallet and strapping only. We reuse cardboard boxes from others shipping when we need this material and left over plywood for crating. We have decreased our printed marketing literature to a minimum and new, compact brochures will be printed on FSC certified paper. In our office, we were able to recycle 900 pounds of paper this year; as well as, 940 plastic bottles and 38 pounds of aluminum cans.
HC has established a waste management plan in conjunction with Land-of-Sky waste management to increase efficiency of our manufacturing processes.
Community
We have participated in and sponsored multiple in-house, community and regional educational events on sustainability and the environment. Of those, we conducted 15 Home Professional Group Tours of the manufacturing facility and show room including AIA registered classes. We provided 5 Educational Events on the Poplar Bark Shingle Movement and did 5 Historical Presentations on Bark House Style. Architects from Washington, California, Illinois and New York attended. Facility tours have included builders from GA, SC, NC, VA and TN. HC co-owner Chris McCurry wrote a book on Sustainable Designs published by Gibbs Smith in 2008 and we had 14 book signings in which green attributes were discussed and the fact that this style is a NC innovation. Programs have included “The Grey Shades of Green” presented at the annual WITHIT conference as well as numerous others on our products that break down into simple language, what makes our products green. Additionally, we have advocated for sustainable initiatives in Spruce Pine through The Main Street Organization and town planning processes. We displayed at 2 Home Shows which included the International Builders Show and the local Handmade in America Show and have been featured in 75 media outlets including blogs, magazines and newspapers.
We are members of many important organizations and invite you to review those.
Chris McCurry is an active member and supporter of the Spruce Pine Main Street Board participating in town initiatives such as: Pre Master-Planning Process, Town Clean-up Day, Trout Derby, Heritage Festival, Black Smith Festival with contribution to the Serviceberry Tree Art.
Client Spotlight: Who Supports Green Innovation?
Bass Pro Shops- Nationwide
Parsons New School of Design
Invesco Field-Mile High Stadium, Denver
J.W. Marriott Hotels
Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, Alaska
Big Cedar Lodge, Missouri
LaQuinta Hotel, Boone, NC
The Ramble at Biltmore Forest
Linville Resort Clubhouse and Tennis Facility
Flatrock Playhouse You Theatre
Spring Ridge Club, Pennsylvania
Tamarack Resort, Idaho
The Woodlands Restaurant, Austin, Texas
Redwood Restaurant, Maryland
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