As the consumer desire for more transparency from brands continues to grow, home goods makers and retailers such as Ikea and Williams Sonoma have published sustainability and social responsibility reports to promote their good work. Florida-based furnishings retailer City Furniture—which operates 23 stores across the state—is the latest to state its goals toward bettering the company and its impact on the world.
City’s Social Responsibility Report outlines the retailer’s goals across four categories—safety, people, giving and sustainability—and details the company’s work to achieve those objectives.
“This Corporate Social Responsibility Report is our way of showing how we are doing in living our purpose,” said Andrew Koenig, CEO, City Furniture. “Specifically, this report displays our progress and how we are creating the company we all want to be part of. It will also hold leadership (including myself) accountable.”
Safety is a major focus for the company, both that of its employees and its customers. The company invested in new technology to prepare them for severe weather events in hurricane-prone Florida, and it decreased the frequency of workplace injuries to an average of .73 per month in 2022.
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City also entered its third year of partnership with Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) on their Product Stability Verified program to help prevent dangerous furniture tip-overs in homes. City also meets federal emission standards for formaldehyde content in the products it sells, as well as being compliant with the Safer Occupancy Furniture Flammability Act.
Cybersecurity also falls under City Furniture’s safety pillar, with the retailer working to meet new compliance requirements for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which go into effect in 2024.
“As we transition into 2023, cybersecurity remains a top companywide initiative,” the company said in its report. “Our roadmap has many strategic projects that will continue to improve our security posture, which allows us to better protect our information systems, and the data of our customers and associates.”
For its people pillar, City Furniture implemented a new Associate Experience strategy to improve benefits such as parental leave, expand leadership training and ensure market-competitive compensation. With its expansion into the Tampa market, City created nearly 1,000 new positions, with 130 of those being filled by existing employees as part of the company’s emphasis on promoting from within.
City also made investments in diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in 2022, allocating a dedicated budget to DE&I efforts, including employee resource groups that allow workers to find support and community with others of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc., along with allies of those individual groups.
City Furniture also continued its 5 percent giving pledge, donating a minimum of 5 percent of its annual profits to more than 40 community organizations dedicated to health, education, diversity and other areas. The company also donated money and goods to hospitals and clinics in Ukraine and the relief efforts after Hurricane Ian, among other philanthropic efforts.
On the sustainability front, City Furniture has made a pledge to go carbon neutral by 2040 through a three-part plan that includes 100 percent clean driving, sustainably designed facilities and expanded recycling efforts.
“By 2040, our delivery fleet will be carbon neutral, running on natural gas and electric trucks powered by renewable energy,” the report said. “We’ll also use Tesla semi-trucks to transport our shipments to each warehouse.”
City’s sustainability efforts also extend to its product assortment, with the retailer aiming to offer more furnishings bearing sustainability certifications such as Oeko-Tex, Fair Trade and GOTS.
“We’re proud of all we’ve done in 2022,” Koenig said. “I am more excited about the future than ever before, and we will continue to set the standard for how a company should operate.”