Common ground
In Huntingburg, Indiana generations of discerning minds used their fortitude to nurture a small and ambitious wood products manufacturer into an authentic global enterprise. As OFS grew, we created relationships in other communities across the globe. We shared our purpose and our values which attracted the best and the brightest.
The success of OFS is guided by a conviction that long term sustainability originates from its people. Building meaningful relationships by finding common ground is at the very foundation of our company.
Common Ground is structured around our Customers, our Colleagues, and our Communities. By providing proper service to one, we add value to each. Our efforts have resulted in a vibrant and resilient organization.
Customers
OFS began our partnership with One Tree Planted in January of 2020 in an effort to help reforest areas throughout the world. Currently, planting trees is the number one climate change solution.
It allows us to plant enough trees to offset all of our Scope 1 and Scope 2 Greenhouse Gas emissions. These are emissions from all of our building electricity and natural gas usage as well as Styline transportation fuel usage and all of OFS company owned vehicles.
To view tree planting details, click a location on the map, or download our fully detailed report here.
- 5,000 trees
- Douglas Fir, Giant Sequoia, Ponderosa Pine
- Improving wildlife habitat
- Forest fire restoration
- Prevents risk of further fire
- Add value to the community
- Prevents erosion
- 2,011 trees
- Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar
- Reforestation
- Reduced erosion
- Positive water movement
- Preventing type conversion
- 5,000 trees
- Ponderosa Pine, Jeffrey Pine, Sugar Pine, Incense Cedar, Douglas Fir
- Complete watershed
- Forest health restoration
- Restore landscape
- Creating jobs in the area
- 5,000 trees
- Wide variety of species
- Restore habitat for endangered orca
- Improved water quality
- Protects against erosion
- Improves the quality and quantity of food available to the orca
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- To protect the watershed
- Reduce erosion
- Lower steam temperatures
- Keep toxins away from entering our waterways
- 5,000 trees
- Western Larch, Engelmann Spruce, Douglas Fir, Western White Pine, Ponderosa Pine
- Regeneration of harvest areas
- Watershed restoration
- Protect the scenic and ecological quality of the forest
- 5,000 trees
- Western Larch, Western White Pine, Ponderosa Pine
- Increase long-term resilience to wildlife, insects, and diseases in harvested units
- Regenerating sites naturally
- Year-round beauty
- 5,000 trees
- Lodgepole Pine
- Regenerate lodgepole in the area
- Improved watershed quality
- Scenic enhancement
- Increased overall health of the region
- 5,000 trees
- Ponderosa Pine
- Re-establish fire tolerant species
- Plant 50,000 seedlings
- High recreational area for locals
- 5,000 trees
- Ponderosa Pine, Limber Pine, Douglas-fir, White Fir
- Reforestation
- Habitat restoration for fauna
- Reduce soil temperatures
- Increased ecosystem productivity
- 5,000 trees
- Ponderosa Pine
- Plant trees in the Stringtown Wash watershed
- Beautiful, shaded forest and recreation area
- 5,000 trees
- Engelmann Spruce
- Plant seedlings to restore areas of degradation from the Spruce Beetle Infestation
- Improve soil quality
- Restoration of the land
- 5,000 trees
- Engelmann Spruce
- Repair areas affected by the spruce bark beetle epidemic
- Speed forest recovery
- Enhance scenic quality
- Improve recreation opportunities over time
- 8,750 trees
- Longleaf Pine
- Create quality wildlife habitat
- Establish and maintain Longleaf Pines
- Improve native habitat
- Reduces wildfire risk
- Water filtration benefits
- Carbon sequestration benefits
- 5,000 trees
- Shortleaf Pine, Longleaf Pine
- Increase forest health
- Maintain biodiversity
- Restore the Red-cockaded woodpecker
- Increase watershed restoration
- Restore historic longleaf ecosystem
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- Improve overall forest health
- Excellent eagle nesting sites
- Ensure eagle nesting sites for years to come
- Increases jobs
- 5,000 trees
- Shortleaf pine
- Restoration demonstration
- Safe, affordable, reliable drinking water
- Increase lake life for drinking water
- 2,800 trees
- Jack pine
- Habitat restoration
- Restore habitats
- Benefits local communities
- 5,000 trees
- Eastern White Pine, Red Pine, Jack Pine, Eastern Hemlock
- Restore degraded land
- Conserving water sources
- Prevent future threats
- Preventing degradation of land
- 1,200 trees
- Upland oak and Shortleaf pine
- Filling in mine shafts and compacting distributed area
- Converting the area to grassland
- Productive native forests
- 4,750 trees
- 23 native species
- Provide seedlings to Tennessee landowners
- Reforestation of native species
- Affordable
- Positive behavioral changes
- Diversity
- 5,000 trees
- Longleaf Pine
- Restore Longleaf Pine
- Promote research
- Target habitat relationships
- Supports environmental equity
- 5,000 trees
- Longleaf Pine
- Restore Longleaf pine ecosystem
- Promote restorative management practices
- Reduces risk of wildfire
- Protects water quality
- 8,750 trees
- Cherrybark Oak, Swamp Chestnut Oak, White Oak, Water Oak, Northern Red Oak, Willow Oak
- Establish healthy, sustainable oak forests
- Clean air
- Clean water
- Clean wildlife habitat
- Clean future forest products
- Protect soil erosion, water quality, and larger plantings
- 5,000 trees
- Shortleaf Pine, Pitch Pine, and Table Mountain Pine
- Restore native species
- Wildlife habitat restoration
- Maintain land
- Provide accessible land
- 5,000 trees
- Longleaf Pine
- Restore longleaf pine forests
- Effective prescribed fire regime
- 5,000 trees
- Longleaf pine
- Restoring the state forest
- Influx of tourism
- Create jobs
- Improve watershed
- Native endangered grasses will thrive
- Increase food
- Increase habitat diversity
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- Restoring and enhancing six different habitat types
- Reconnects wet areas
- Reestablish hydrologic functions
- Outreach
- Recreational Access
- Climate change mitigation
- Flood abatement
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- Create nature preserve
- Protect existing habitat
- Hydrologic improvements
- Improve aquatic habitat
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- The planting of one million native hardwood trees
- Increased biodiversity
- Beautification of communities
- Education about trees
- Easy access to participation
- Increased community investment
- Carbon sequestration
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- 89,500 tree seedlings planted by the spring of 2022
- Reforestation
- Maintain healthy and productive
- Enhanced watershed function
- 5,000 trees
- Shortleaf Pine
- Plant 50,000 trees across 75 acres
- Competitive advantages over other species
- Positive impact on endangered species
- Ecological, economic, and cultural benefits
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- Improve water quality of mainstream Chesapeake Bay
- Erosion Control
- Water quality
- Flood mitigation
- Stormwater management
- Carbon sequestration
- Young forest habitat restoration
- 5,000 trees
- Various species
- Maximize tree seedling success
- Reduce nutrient runoff
- Increase carbon sequestration
- Restore threatened habitats
- Increased forested habitats
- 8,750 trees
- 80+ species
- Increase the number of native trees and forested buffers
- Stabilize stream and river banks, filtering water flow from agricultural, urban, and abandoned mine environments
- Reduces public health costs, crime, and engaging local industry
- 5,000 trees
- Wide variety of species
- Reforest reclaimed mine lands
- Creation of eventual mature forest habitat for increased biodiversity, pollinators, and wildlife habitat for targeted species
- Reduced forest fragmentation
- 2,989
- Various species
- Improve riparian forest function
- Enhance climate adaptivity
- Protects water resources
- Improves forest resilience
- Increase connection to land
- Increases landowner knowledge
- 5,000 trees
- White Spruce and other coniferous species
- Restore healthy forest ecosystems
- Ecosystem resistance
- Restore habitats
- Maintain jobs- Northeast Canada and US
- 1,000 trees
- Green Alder, Jack Pine, White Pine, White Spruce
- Restore healthy forest ecosystems
- Rebuilding of forests
- Re-established preindustrial habitat state
- 4,000 trees
- Various species
- Maximize ecological benefits
- Ensure healthy forests
- Reduce flooding
- Sequester harmful emissions
- Healthy communities
- 5,000 trees
- Oyamel and Smooth-bark Mexican Pine
- Combat deforestation
- Ecosystemic services
- Increased ecotourism
- Protect water source
- Maintain jobs
We voluntarily report our Greenhouse Gas emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project (www.cdp.net). Annually, we inventory our GHG emissions and report to the CDP. This practice increases transparency to our customers, colleagues and communities, and helps us to identify risks, opportunities and areas where we can improve in terms of climate change mitigation.
OFS also reports electricity, natural gas, bio-fuel, diesel fuel and gasoline usage to the Carbon Disclosure Project. These are our main sources of energy and all are tracked continuously through the shared measurement of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (MTCO2e).
We currently offer twelve Health Product Declarations (HPDs) for higher volume products that represent larger product categories. The creation of these HPDs is only the beginning of our initiative to provide chemical transparency and get a better understanding of what chemicals, and the volume of those chemicals, are within our products.
This initial work provided the foundation for our future work with goals of additional HPDs and reductions of potentially harmful chemicals. The Health Product Declaration® (HPD) Open Standard is the most widely used transparency and material health reporting method in the building industry.
To search any of our HPD's, visit the HPD Public Repository
We currently offer HPDs for:
- Heya Lounge
- Genus Task
- HB Side
- Applause Tables
- Wyre Tables
- Intermix Conference
- Impulse G2/Pulse Workstations
- Staks Workstations
- Bistro Side
- Voyage Side
- Flexxy Guest
- Coact Lounge
Indoor Air Quality certifications
All of OFS furniture products have achieved SCS Indoor Advantage and SCS Indoor Advantage Gold Certifications. This assures that furniture supports a healthy indoor environment by meeting strict chemical emission limits for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). View our Indoor Air Quality certificates here.
BIFMA LEVEL® certification
The BIFMA e3 Sustainability Standard, which provides the foundation for the LEVEL® certification, is the multi-attribute, sustainability standard and third party certification program for the furniture industry. View our Level certificates here.
FSC® COC certification
OFS offers all casegoods and tables as FSC® COC Certified (Forest Stewardship Council®). The FSC Standards represent the world’s strongest system for guiding forest management toward sustainable outcomes.
USGBC & LEED membership
OFS is an active member of the U.S. Green Building Council. The USGBC is the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders working to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.
WELL Cornerstone member
OFS is involved in the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) membership program as a Cornerstone member. WELL is focused exclusively on the ways that buildings and communities, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness.
Climate Positive NOW partner
Climate Positive NOW is a framework for communicating the unique sustainability benefits of wood-based materials. Many OFS products are manufactured with engineered wood materials that store up to 40% more carbon than is released in their production and use, reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and helping to offset the carbon footprint of less sustainable materials and products commonly used in commercial interiors.
imagine a place®
Imagine a Place is a journal, podcast, and video series that explores the powerful role that place plays in our lives by gathering and sharing authentic voices, insightful perspectives, and visuals of places designed to inspire, support, and connect people.
Imagine a Place reinforces our belief that people and how they design and interact with places can create spaces and ideas that inspire and benefit other people. It explores how we create relationships with each other and with our environments to help make the world a better place.
Let's imagine a place together.
Colleagues
In July of 2017 OFS set off on a multi-year journey to create a wellness focused workspace that would
benefit all employees that work within our Corporate office as well as any visitors. By providing a
space
that promotes holistic wellbeing we couldn’t be happier to positively impact the lives of the employees
that allow this company to operate.
In December of 2020 we were awarded WELLv2TM Platinum certification by the International Well Building Institute (IWBI). Platinum certification is the highest designation a project can receive from the IWBI’s Well Building Standard.
Our 49,000 square-foot headquarters is the first in Indiana to receive the leading health and wellness certification. At the time we were awarded our certification, we were one of only 12 Platinum spaces in the US overall and one of only six platinum spaces under the more recent WELLv2 standard. To learn more, visit our WELLv2™ Platinum certification page.
- Air
- Water
- Nourishment
- Light
- Movement
- Thermal comfort
- Sound
- Materials
- Mind
- Community
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)
Equity is the guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all while striving to identify and eliminate any barriers that prevent the full participation of any individual or groups of individuals based on such factors as race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or physical abilities.
Equity Steering Committee charter
At OFS, we recognize that people and their diversity are our greatest asset and as a result we are committed to promoting policies, procedures and programs that provide equal access and opportunity to all associates while fostering an organizational culture that recognizes and values the diversity and inclusion of every individual.
The purpose of the Equity Steering Committee is to develop and promote strategies, programs and best practices for diversity, equity and inclusion within the realms of racial, social, sexual orientation and gender. The ultimate goal of this committee is to provide for the betterment of OFS, OFS employees, their families and our communities and to build upon the OFS family culture so that everyone is provided with a holistic professional and inclusive experience.
To view our full Equity Steering Committee charter, please download our detailed 2022 Sustainability Report.
Education is essential to personal and organizational growth. It is a necessity in creating clear understanding and communication between colleagues. Aspects that affect the way we conduct business can change rapidly and OFS believes that continuing education for our employees, partners and customers will help to sustain our relationships and our future growth. We promote lifelong learning.
CEU Courses
OFS offers a number of different Continuing Education Units (CEU) courses for our customers. These include From Forest to Furniture: Understanding the Role of Wood Based Materials in Sustainable Design, Heart of the Hardwoods: Sustainable building materials through responsible forest management, and Designing for Patient-Centered Behavioral Health Design.
We also offer three CEU courses focused on WELL. These include The WELL Building Standard, Working WELL, and WELL Minded.
Wood based materials
Forest management
Healthcare
WELL
At OFS Educational Campus, Cool Springs, we continuously host local and regional educational activities for groups ranging from customers, employees, grade school field trips, and community groups to industry and government organizations.
A cross between an educational preserve, a reforesting effort, a design retreat, and a corporate meeting center, our property at Cool Springs is much more than meets the eye. Located just down the road from our headquarters in Huntingburg, Indiana, we’ve been using these 600 acres to create meaningful opportunities for connection, discovery, focus, and restoration. Whether you’re there for a tour, a four-wheeler ride through the woods, or a dinner prepared from our very own garden, you don’t just visit Cool Springs, you experience it. The grounds include horses, outdoor activities, bee hives, a greenhouse, a lake, and more.
We'd love to show you around, so please send us a note if you’d like to drop by.
Get in touch
Community
OFS, its employees and its founders have given countless charitable contribution dollars and volunteer hours to help support local, regional and global community development. Giving back to the communities that support and have given so much to us creates opportunities for better quality of life, optimism and sense of togetherness. The following organizations are just some of the causes we contribute to. For additional details, please download our 2021 Sustainability Report.
- Fresh Artists
- Furniture For Kids
- Make-A-Wish
- Stellar Grant
- Adopt A Highway
- Alzheimer’s Association
- Design Your World
- Designs For Dignity
- A Kid's Place
- Dubois Strong
- Habitat for Humanity
- Boy Scouts of America
- Menke Charitable Foundation
- University of Evansville Scholarship
- Huntingburg Event Center
- Huntingburg Old Town Hall Endowment
- The McMurtrie Preserve
- Dubois County Community Foundation
- The American Cancer Society
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Mask Donations
Due to a shortage of personal protective equipment caused by the Corona virus pandemic, OFS saw an opportunity to lend support to our local hospitals during this challenging time. In early 2020, we were able to deliver over 100,000 level 1 masks to the staff at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center in Jasper, Indiana, Novant Health in High Point, NC, WMC Hospital in Valhalla, NY, Children’s National Hospital in Landover, MD, Banner Health in Phoenix, AZ, and Professional Eye Care in Huntingburg, IN.
Current Blend, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating new business and attracting talent to the region, is Dubois County’s first co-working collaborative workspace.
Collaborative workspaces are designed to bring entrepreneurs with different skill sets under one roof to promote interaction and business development. Current Blend features a beautifully designed space plan with modern, open-concept furniture through a partnership with OFS and the Menke family in Huntingburg, Indiana.
This co-working space is the first step by local business-owners and community leaders to ignite local entrepreneurship and support established businesses. As this group began to formulate their goals and action plans, the historic Parker House building in Huntingburg, purchased by the Menke family for preservation, became available. Cory Menke enthusiastically supported the endeavor by providing access to the Parker House.
Download our 2022 Sustainability Report
Common Ground is the growth medium that sustains our business. Providing solutions that benefit each of our three foundational pillars ensures that we are firmly rooted and that we maintain the resiliency needed to bear fruit well into the future. To learn more about how we grow please download our Common Ground report here.
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