Environmental Awareness Training
Years ago, KI determined that all employees, as part of the KI team, need to contribute to environmental compliance at the facilities. Certain key individuals serve as focal points for the gathering and distribution of information.

• Employees/Technicians must be familiar with the environmental policy and be aware of the requirements related to their job. The Employees/Technicians should feel free to contact any other individuals with their environmental concerns or questions.
• Supervisors/Product Line Managers are to be resources for employees/technicians for general environmental questions and information.
• Plant Environmental Engineers are individuals with overall environmental responsibilities. The role of the Plant Environmental Engineers is to address compliance issues in the plant, such as obtaining permits, filing necessary reports, training, and distribute general information concerning environmental issues and policies.
• The role of the Corporate Compliance Officer is to assure that plant managers and environmental engineers are taking appropriate action to ensure environmental compliance.

Environmental Compliance Manuals
In an effort to continuously improve the facilities' environmental performance, and as a basis for a planned compliance audit program, KI has begun developing comprehensive environmental compliance manuals for each manufacturing facility.

Compliance Auditing
These Environmental Compliance Manuals are to serve as a tool to confirm that all environmental program requirements are being met, facilitate transfer of site-specific information from the manufacturing facility to the corporate office, facilitate transfer of information from the current environmental manager to their predecessor(s), and provide a guide for routine audits.

ISO 9001
As part of KI's business philosophy to build the highest quality business and institutional furniture, KI implemented a Quality Management System for all of its manufacturing plants and related corporate functions. These Quality Systems were audited and are certified according to ISO standards. ISO 9001 was developed by the International Organization for Standardization to "facilitate the world-class exchange of goods and services." It is a standardized framework for building, operating and documenting a quality management system. KI is among an elite group of United States Manufacturers who have acquired ISO 9001 certification.

Although KI is not currently certified in ISO 14001 (the environmental management system), several principles of the ISO 9001 system have positive impacts on environmental aspects of KI's manufacturing facilities.

Some examples of this interaction include the following:

• KI is focused on their customers and their needs and expectations, including their customers' expectations that office and institutional furniture lines should be designed and produced with environmental considerations at the forefront.
• KI involves all team members in their continuous improvement process. Due to this involvement, there have been numerous successes in the areas of resource conservation, waste reduction, and efficiency.
• Continual improvement is a constant mantra of the environmental program as well as the quality program.
• Supplier relationships are critical to KI's success. KI is proud of the accomplishments of major suppliers in the environmental area, as evidenced by several portions of this document.

As part of the ISO 9001 program, KI carefully monitors and controls changes made to production operations, specifications, and raw materials. In order for a change to proceed, a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of the change must be evaluated. Environmental considerations are part of the Process Change Notification process.

Kaizens
The goal of the KI's Kaizen program is orderly and continuous improvement. It involves all levels of the organization. The focus is on eliminating waste in all systems and processes of the organization and continuously improving KI's ability to meet expectations of high quality, low cost, and on-time delivery.

Waste elimination has obvious impacts on environmental issues by reducing air emissions, reducing wastes (both hazardous waste and solid waste), wastewater discharges, and other impacts on the surrounding environment.

Market-Driven Quality System
Employee teams set direction and monitor results for all elements of the KI Market-driven Quality System (MDQS). These teams review management's direction in the creation of clear, viable and quality values, including social responsibility. Information processes are examined and analyzed along with short- and long-term business plans. In addition, KI reviews the quality of suppliers, both internal and external, as compared to competitors to achieve the highest standards. Most importantly, KI continually surveys its customers' needs and develops key processes based on their feedback. The ISO 9001 certification process verifies the KI Market-Driven Quality System. Following are the teams which dictate the KI MDQ system:

• Documentation Team -- reviews the ISO documentation system
• Quality Analysis Team -- focuses on long-term customer solutions
• Rapid Response Team -- responds to customer concerns within four hours
• Poke-a-Yoke -- eliminates mistakes and errors in engineering processes
• Scrap Team -- analyzes internal processes with the goal of reducing costs
• Environmental Team -- design, marketing and manufacturing evaluation of manufacturing processes, products, and suppliers to provide sustainable product offering.