Environmental
Responsibility

At Figi's, we believe that environmental stewardship is very important, for our customers, our company, and our world. We are working to develop business processes that have less impact on the environment and more positive social effects. While we have accomplished much in these respects, we acknowledge that there is still much to be done, and we are up for the challenge!

Marketing Initiatives

We have reduced our impact on the environment through marketing initiatives that promote more efficient catalog mailings and email campaigns thereby reducing waste and unwanted mail.

• Address verification processes are performed regularly before each mailing.
• Measuring and analyzing mailings to select only those people most likely to respond.
• We maintain a Customer Do Not Mail request file and suppress those names from catalog mailings.
• We work to optimize the size and page counts of our catalogs, mailing the fewest pages required while keeping the best assortment of products for our customers.
• Using the lowest basis weight paper for catalogs that is economically feasible.
• Converting our catalog customers to online customers for ordering, customer service, and submitting payments.
• We partner with print and paper suppliers who also place great importance on a commitment to environmental stewardship.

Our goals for improvements include: requiring our suppliers meet minimum sustainable forestry practices, increase the percentage of recycled paper in our marketing promotions, further reduce undeliverable mail and email through improved address verification practices, increase segmentation and targeting of catalog and email campaigns, and develop preference services for our customers to allow them to indicate frequency, timing, and type of emails and catalogs desired. Finally, Marketing will promote environmental awareness to our customers and employees.

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Product Initiatives

We closely manage our products; from developing products with safe and healthy contents to liquidation of products at the end of their life cycle, thereby reducing waste.

Product Content

• Our Quality Assurance department guidelines have been revised, requiring our products to meet higher safety standards than ever.
• We've developed additional information to provide to our online customers including: nutritional, serving, and storage instructions.

Product Management

• We evaluate performance of gifts and gift components eliminating those with low usage and low customer response.
• Discontinued inventory is marked down and sold on Figis.com under the clearance category and through the outlet retail store.
• We donate many food product and hard good items to worthy organizations including local food pantries.

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Packaging Initiatives

We continually evaluate all product packaging in terms of type of material used, and how much is used, to minimize environmental impact.

Type of material used

• 100% of our non-food, loose-fill peanut packing materials are biodegradable.
• All of our shipping cartons can be recycled.
• Corrugated cardboard contains 35% recycled content.
• Damaged cartons, tins, and obsolete polystyrene vacuum formed trays are returned to our vendor for recycling.
• We're working towards being PVC free.
• Our goal: 100% of gift boxes will be recyclable.

Amount of material used

• The size of the packaging has been configured to best fit the product, eliminating empty space and waste.
• Excess packaging has been eliminated that does not interfere with protection of product or product aesthetics.

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Suppliers/Product Procurement Initiatives

An evaluation of suppliers regarding usage, proximity, and environmental performance is completed on an ongoing basis. In addition, a review of current distribution methods to reduce transport and CO2 emissions is taking place.

Suppliers

• We are making a concentrated effort to use suppliers located in, or close to Wisconsin, whenever possible, thereby reducing CO2 emissions. Currently over 40% of our purchases come from Wisconsin.
• A review of our suppliers is taking place in an effort to reduce the number by 10%, creating economies of scale through larger, less frequent shipments.

Product Procurement

• We buy directly from the manufacturer rather than through a distributor where feasible.
• Consolidated trucking schedules, both in and out bound, lead to more efficient deliveries.
• We're working with UPS to assure full loads, avoiding wasted space, which leads to more trips.

Our goals for improvement in the product area focus around supplier and freight consolidation, type and amount of packaging used, and product content.

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Workplace Recycling and Energy Conservation

Energy recycling and conservation have become an integral part of our processes throughout our facilities.

We Recycle

• Fluorescent light bulbs, HID bulbs, and lamp ballasts for fixtures using these types of bulbs.
• Used oil and power transmission lubricants.
• Batteries from uninterruptible power systems, emergency lighting systems, and forklift equipment, as well as small hand tools and other applications.
• Hazardous chemicals, mainly used in the printing operation. A certified waste hauler/recycler is used for this process.
• Damaged or broken wooden pallets. They are shipped to pallet recyclers.
• Steel and aluminum products and other obsolete or out of service equipment.
• PC's and other electronic equipment. They are sent to certified processors for recycling.
• All corrugated and paper products. (This came to over 250 tons in 2008.)

Energy Conservation Practices

• Our janitorial services use green products for cleaning and sanitizing tasks in our buildings and for cleaning of contracted uniforms, floor mats and towels.
• As HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) and lighting equipment are replaced, high efficiency equipment is installed, decreasing energy usage for these systems.
• We developed an environmental compliance program for our facilities that will enable us to manage and control compliance with Federal, State and local regulations, and to set up a road map to achieve best environmental practices.

Our goals for improvement in this area involve partnering with Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program and Marshfield Utilities to perform energy audits on all Figi locations developing plans to reduce energy consumption by 15%.

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