Green Facts

Northwest Door is located in Puyallup, Washington about 20 miles from the base of Mount Rainier. We have been located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest since we started over 65 years ago. We understand the significance of preserving the beauty of our planet and it's resources and for many years have conducted what is now commonly known as "GREEN PRACTICES". Reducing our wastes, fuel consumption in addition to recycling materials has always been a high priority and an ongoing continous improvement goal of Northwest Door.

Northwest Door strives to incorporate manufacturing efficiencies and procedures that will reduce our carbon footprint while maintaining the highest standards of quality. In 2006, Northwest Door constructed a new 300,000 square foot state of the art manufacturing facility. It was designed by AHBL Engineering in conjunction with Tacoma City Light and Pierce County Economic Development to utilize the latest in Green Practices.

  • LIGHTING - Our manufacturing plant incorporates an energy efficient ambient controlled lighting system which uses a great deal of natural sun light. The more sunlight that is present, the less power we consume.
  • EQUIPMENT - 98% of our manufacturing equipment feature soft start heavy duty electric motors on large equipment and presses reducing power drawn and consumption. Our large high voltage electric transformers are also environmentally friendly.
  • FORK TRUCKS - All fork trucks used exclusively inside the plant are electric powered; this is 60% of our fork truck fleet.
  • OUR PRODUCTS - In the construction of our garage doors we use a variety of materials depending on the product. We take great efforts to purchase and use materials made with recycled content from environmentally friendly suppliers whenever possible. These materials are primarily but not limited to steel, aluminum, wood, polystyrene, and cardboard for packaging. All materials used in in our products are CFC and HCFC Free.
  • STEEL GARAGE DOORS & HARDWARE- Steel is used in many manufacturing applications; steel door skins, steel fasteners, steel spring wire and steel hardware components. Each of these have varying amounts of recycled content, with hardware components and fasteners containing the greatest amount; about 95% and lighter gauge steel such as that used in the doors skins being 30%.
  • ALUMINUM GARAGE DOORS & HARDWARE - Aluminum is used in the manufacturing of our cast cable drums. They are used on all garage doors and are made of 100% recycled aluminum. Aluminum is also used in the extruded components which we use to build our aluminum doors; they contain about 25% recycled material; this is the maximum allowable to maintain both strength and quality assurance when either anodizing or finishing.
  • WOOD GARAGE DOORS - The woods that we use in the manufacturing of our wooden doors are 95% FSC and SFI Certified. (Sustainable Forest Practices) The mills re-plant for the harvested timber to ensure a long term sustainable wood fiber and sustainable forest management.
  • POLYSTYRENE - Polystyrene is used as insulation in many of our garage doors. 95% percent of the polystyrene we use is 1 pound density which contains 20% recycled content.
  • CARDBOARD - Our cardboard packaging is certified at an average minimum of 35% post-consumer waste.
  • RECYCLING - Northwest Door recycles most of the scraps and other materials used in manufacturing. In 2008 we were recognized as and received a "Recycler of the Year" award from the Washington State Recycling Association. This was a result of instituting a new and comprehensive recycling program that we began in 2007. In 2007 we recycled over 85% of our solid waste; including steel, tin, wood, plastics, paper, cardboard, cans, bottles and plastic insulation foam.