Hearth and Home Technologies® is in a unique position to lead the hearth industry in sustainable innovation. As one of the largest hearth appliance manufacturers in the world, they strongly believe it is their responsibility to be not only conscientious stewards of the environment, but the bellwether for sustainable manufacturing in the hearth industry. By incorporating three guiding principles into their business structure—respecting people, reducing impacts and redefining tomorrow—they are helping set the industry standard for a safe, inclusive and sustainable future. 

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For over 40 years HHT has led the hearth industry in product ingenuity—creating new technologies and developing hearth solutions that constantly raise the bar in design, quality and performance. Now, they have expanded their innovation platform to include sustainable practices in every aspect of their business, from product conception to end-user enjoyment.

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“Our opportunities include continuing to lower emissions, creating more efficient products and better consumer interfaces because there’s not only innovation in product design and engineering, there’s innovation in sustainability as well. It all comes down to ‘How do we make our products better for the planet?’” — VP Berger, President, Hearth and Home Technologies.

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Their comprehensive plan for integrating environmentally responsible practices into their culture begins with modifying operations to eliminate waste and conserve energy, sourcing 100% renewable electricity at all HHT facilities, enforcing a specific code of conduct for tier one suppliers, eliminating non-recyclable foam from packaging and developing even more efficient and effective products, including more electric hearth options. “We’re focused on developing electric hearths, to be ready for the hearth industry of the future.” — Jessica Voss-Kehl, Vice President, Innovation.

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“HHT has very strong sustainability goals. One of the things we are most proud of is recycling over tens of millions of tons of metal at our facility in Vermont and reusing those materials to build new products.” – Clive Rugara, Senior Vice President, Stove Business Unit (Forge and Flame).

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But it doesn’t stop there. Future goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, implementing design for environment practices, evaluating 100% of materials for human and ecosystem impacts and achieving zero waste to landfill by 2030.

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The company-wide initiative seeks input from every member of HHT and they’ve received hundreds of actionable suggestions for implementing even more practices through their “Mi Idea” program. The program cultivates and implements ideas to improve all areas of the business, including safety, quality, efficiency, operations and sustainability.

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“To be successful in a sustainability plan, it takes people from different backgrounds to think about it. That’s the beauty of integrating sustainability throughout all aspects of operations. When we do that, we get engineers, we get accounting folks, we get people that might not have a sustainability background helping us to solve these hard problems.” – Lisa Brunie-McDermott, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, HNI Corporation (parent company of HHT).

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By instituting sustainable solutions in every aspect of their business and collaborating with suppliers and members to support these initiatives, HHT is helping the hearth industry create a more sustainable future. In a very real sense, it’s just another way of putting home first.

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