U.S. MADE LIGHTING: THE ENVIRONMENTAL ARGUMENT

Understandably, the major argument supporting the case for buying U.S.-made goods focuses on economic health in terms of jobs. Surprisingly, however, there’s not a lot written about the environmental benefits of buying domestically (although we did love environmental columnist Jennifer Grayson’s “Red, White and Green” blog).

The “green” case for buying American is pretty straightforward — foreign-made goods generally consume more energy and contribute more pollution than domestically made goods. This is due primarily to the environmental costs inherent in transporting goods over long distances, and the fact that most foreign production facilities have significantly lower environmental quality standards than we do in the U.S.

As you may be aware, 100% of Hammerton products are fabricated in the U.S.A., and the majority of our materials are sourced domestically. We do this not only because it’s good for our business, it’s also good for our community and our environment.

By sourcing and manufacturing domestically, Hammerton employs a U.S. workforce at multiple levels of the company’s value chain, including production and shipment of raw materials to our Salt Lake City facility, as well as the manufacturing of finished goods. This also results in a product that has significantly lower ‘embedded energy’ (e.g. carbon released over its life cycle) than a comparable product that’s manufactured abroad.

So when you choose a Hammerton fixture over an imported alternative, you’re not only supporting the U.S. economy, you’re supporting the environment as well.

Of course, our corporate environmental practices extend far beyond a U.S.-based production policy, but we’ll cover that in a future post. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your comments.