Irwin

Seating that keeps them coming back.

Established in 1907, Irwin Seating Company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of audience seating for movie theatres, auditoriums, arenas, performing arts centers, stadiums and places of worship. Our chairs, bleachers and telescopic platforms are installed in thousands of venues all over the world, as well as notable venues in our home community of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
We operate two manufacturing facilities, one in Grand Rapids, where our fixed seating products are manufactured and one in Altamont, Illinois where our retractable bleachers and telescopic platforms are made. All major components of our seating are made in the USA and many are locally sourced. We support the employment of hundreds between direct employees of our two facilities and our U.S supply chain and dealer network.

Irwin Seating has been evaluating the environmental impacts of our business for many years and has been benchmarking and tracking progress.
Irwin Seating Company Environmental Leadership is demonstrated in the following “Focus Five” areas:

  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
  • Energy Conservation
  • Air Quality
  • Environmental Commitment
  • Environmental Policy

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE:
Irwin Seating Company is committed to upholding the highest standards of environmental leadership. When wastes or releases cannot be avoided, we are committed to recycling, treatment, and disposal in ways that minimize any undesirable impacts on the environment:
We recycle our scrap metals, scrap wood, skids, batteries, packaging, excess fabric, light bulbs, cardboard, computers, and a variety of paper products.
We work with our vendors on efforts such as reusing packaging for shipping materials to us and finished goods to our customers, saving thousands of pounds of cardboard annually.

  • Our seating foam replaces standard materials with 10% bio-based content; all of our post-industrial scrap foam is shredded and recycled into carpet padding.
  • Our Grand Rapids location has been zero-landfill since 2011.
  • Cardboard tubes from our fabric rolls are regularly donated to John Ball Zoo. The tubes are used for animal enrichment activities.

ENERGY CONSERVATION
Irwin Seating Company tracks energy consumption, sets a goal to reduce its consumption, reviews its usage, and structures teams and projects to go after opportunities. Examples include:

  • Irwin Seating Company’s participation in a voluntary EPA program called “Green Lights.” The program introduced us to a variety of efficient lighting options, resulting in an 18% reduction in energy usage since their implementation.
  • Irwin Seating Company’s purchase of “green power” supports the development of renewable energy sources, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

AIR QUALITY
We identified all on-site sources of potential air pollution and have instituted practices, product changes, and new systems and processes to eliminate excessive pollution:

  • Through the Environmental Protection Agency’s 33/50 Program, Irwin Seating Company reduced air pollution by 33% in its painting operations by converting our metal finishing over to all powder coating.
  • More recently, we converted from solvent-based glue in our upholstery operation to water-based glue, as well as replaced solvent-based stains in our wood finish line with water-based stains, reducing our VOC emissions by 45%, .

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT
We actively participate and support several environmental organizations in the communities in which our employees work and live. Some of the organizations that Irwin Seating Company has partnered with include:

  • West Michigan Environmental Action Council
  • West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum
  • The Land Conservancy of West Michigan, Michigan Business Pollution Prevention Partnership
  • The Michigan Recycling Coalition

Working with the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, we assisted in the development of a guidebook called the “Concise Self-Assessment Guide to Environmentally Sustainable Commerce.” This guidebook provided organizations with a way to analyze and measure their environmental performance in the areas of Environmental Management Systems, Product/Service Design, Facilities Management, Purchasing, Operations, Packaging, Delivery and/or Installation, and Marketing and Sales. This assessment has now been a part of Irwin Seating Company’s own internal benchmarking process since 1997.
Irwin Seating Company donated land and resources for the construction of a parking area and bike trail through its property in Grand Rapids. Eventually this will allow two existing trails to link, creating hundreds of miles of continuous trail through the rolling hills of West Michigan.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
At Irwin Seating Company, our objective is to protect the environment through the elimination or reduction of waste and emissions. We do this by:

  • Developing pollution prevention programs and practices
  • Implementing technologies that safeguard and preserve the environment
  • Reviewing our products, processes, and services for continuous improvement opportunities. Adhering to all relevant environmental laws and regulations, and seeking opportunities to exceed environmental requirements
  • We make our environmental information available to our employees and to the public

Website

Get in Touch

3251 Fruit Ridge Ave. NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49544

Representative

Anne Chapman
Marketing Coordinator
(616) 574-7154
anne.chapman@irwinseating.com

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