By We’ve all become more aware of the vulnerability of our environment, even young children are being taught about the adverse health effects of air pollution. The importance of sustainability, avoiding wasting precious natural resources, minimizing industrial waste with the use of sustainable materials, and the practice of recycling have increasingly become unavoidable. These are immediate concerns.
Does recycling reduce pollution? That question has a clear answer: “Recycling has a profound impact on reducing pollution levels. Using recycled materials instead of raw, new resources, we diminish the harmful emissions of extraction and manufacturing.”
With 145 Showroom (including one at 1961 Broadway), Outlet, and Clearance Center locations across seven states, Raymour and Flanigan is a major home furnishings business. Its eco-wise dedication is remarkable, as the company’s website notes, ”239.5+ million pounds of packaging diverted from landfills since 2002.” And Raymour and Flanigan was ahead of the game with its commitment going back more than 20 years ago, to recycling and proactive eco-efforts in ways that were protective of the environment.
The company leadership recognized that these eco-wise practices were also economically advantageous to them. It was less expensive and consumed less fossil fuel to maintain company facilities, which brought trucking operations under company oversight and consolidated recycling operations in-house at four regional centers in the northeast.
Architect Anthony M. Catsimatides’ firm, Open Atelier, said he has designed “several hundred thousand square feet of showroom as well as over a million square feet of warehousing, recycling and maintenance facilities for Raymour and Flanigan” since about 2007. He remembers getting his first call from Raymour and Flanigan asking him about undertaking a small project for the 125th Street store in Manhattan. He accepted, although his first thought was that it would be a long way to travel from where he was based in Syracuse, New York. But, he took the job, “…got along well with the head of Construction and Development and the rest of the Raymour team…” and that job led to many more over the next 10-15 years.
The project Catsimatidis, designed for Raymour and Flanigan in Suffern, NY, to serve the tri-state area, involved the renovation of a warehouse and another enormous building to be used as a company recycling center.
Catsimatidis’s personal interests in green technologies meshed with those of the Goldbergs, the family that founded and owns Raymour and Flanigan. Although the company first opened in 1947, Catsimatidis said it was aggressively expanding around the time he first started working with the company. He said Raymour and Flanigan’s leadership care a lot about loyalty. They find people they like working with and stay with them for years and years. Recycling continues to be a huge enterprise at Raymour and Flanigan – for dozens and dozens of boxes along with other packing materials. More specifically, the company’s website description of recycled materials is extensive.
“We recycle expanded polystyrene (EPS, commonly known as styrofoam), low density polyethylene (LDPE, commonly known as plastic), old corrugated containers (OCC, commonly known as cardboard), office paper, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET, commonly know as PET bottles or water/soda bottles). Through a variety of specialized machines and processes, each material is compressed, baled and prepared for transport.”
The website also provides details about the reuse of materials: “EPS can be melted and remolded into new plastic products, LDPE can be made into plastic lumber, OCC and office paper can become new corrugated boxes and paper products, and PET can be made into fleece fabric. Also, recycling cardboard uses only 75% of the energy needed to make new cardboard.”
Catsimatidis’ projects for Raymour and Flanigan over the years have included buildings in Brooklyn, Queens—and many other locations. In general, he said the good news is that the costs of sustainable building materials have come down so that by using them a developer is not incurring huge extra costs as once was the case. He said while the company commissions its own buildings, it also has a “hermit crab-like” affinity to move into existing spaces and have them tailored for their own use. This was the case, for example, with the 30,000 square foot 2-story flagship Raymour and Flanigan at 1961 Broadway at 66th Street.
In discussing the design of the store, Catsimatidis noted that, “the client leans more towards a traditional look for their spaces to complement the furniture style they are known for, but the inclusion of bamboo finishes and low voc carpeting containing fewer potentially toxic volatile organic compounds demonstrated their commitment to preserving clean air and other conditions of a sustainable world.”