Sustainable Furniture Council To Host Educational Events In Las Vegas

Furniture World News

The Sustainable Furniture Council announced that it will host a full slate of free public seminars during the Las Vegas summer market as it oversees Living Green Pavilion’s expansion and ongoing development. SFC offers six Educational seminars with the support of World Market Center, GE Money, and Con-Tech Lighting. Each is open to market attendees and the public at no charge. The idea is to keep the green movement very much in the buyer’s eye, providing worthwhile educational content along with specific direction on where to go shopping for sustainable products while at market. The seminars will be held in a dedicated conference room near the new and improved Living Green Pavilion, an 11,000 SF showcase of the best in sustainable home furnishings. The venue has been moved to the 5th Floor of the newly opening Building C, immediately at the top of the escalators, next to the walk over from Building B, and wrapped around an elevator bank to ensure that it gets the full attention of the 50,000+ visitors expected at market based on pre-registrations, an all-time high. SFC membership was involved in establishing the participation criteria and the overall staging of the venue. “World Market Center has shown tremendous commitment to the project,” said Susan Inglis, SFC Executive Director, “They have consistently invested the time and money to make Living Green one of the premier events for sustainable products. We are delighted that they invited us to participate in continuing its development.” There will be a morning seminar series from 9:30 to 10:30 am Monday thru Wednesday, 7/28-30 titled GREENING YOUR STORE, with individual seminars to address first Product Selection (7/28), Marketing (7/29) and Operations (7/30). The afternoon series, scheduled from 1 to 2 pm on the same days, is titled GREEN NEW WORLD, with individual seminars to address Upholstery (7/28), a ceu Interior Design course (7/29), and E-Retailing (7/30). All will be based on new content not presented before. The seminar GREENING YOUR STORE: Marketing on Tuesday morning, 7/29, will also provide the first look at results from a proprietary consumer survey funded by SFC to get a definitive read on current consumer attitudes toward the green movement in general and with regard to furniture in particular. It will include awareness measures, purchase interest, and price flexibility among other important points. In Vegas, SFC announces winners of the first One Good Chair International Design Awards, co-sponsored with World Market Center and Western Interiors Magazine, on Wednesday afternoon (7/30) at 3pm. SFC is also supporting SWIFT’s launch of a new sample waste program, GIFFT, an initiative generated by members to keep sample waste out of our landfills. The program will be described in the Living Green Pavilion seminar space on Tuesday (7/29) at 3pm. ABOUT SFC: The SFC is a non-profit coalition of materials suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and designers formed to promote sustainable practices throughout the home furnishings industry. Since its October 2006 inception, it has grown rapidly, and that pace has continued in 2008 with nearly 250 members so far and as many as 20 new members being added each month. All interested parties are encouraged to attend one of the seminars and visit the SFC booth inside the Living Green Pavilion.