Article Number: 6243
Mohawk Industries: Our sustainable strategy for a better world
Sustainability permeates all aspects of Mohawk Industries. We view sustainability as a business imperative, and we are dedicated to providing our customers and consumers with safe and environmentally friendly flooring products. We work to implement sustainable business initiatives that have a quantifiable return, because we believe they offer the best opportunity for significant impact and lasting success.
Our sustainability practices go back several decades. Here are some milestones—ones you can use to illustrate the scope of the flooring industry’s green commitment to consumers:
• Mohawk recycles more than three billion soft drink bottles each year to manufacture our EverStrand PET fiber. Since 1999, we’ve recycled more than 24 billion bottles and kept more than a billion pounds of plastic out of landfills. And the PET we recover is as good or better than virgin material.
• Our SmartStrand carpet made with DuPont Sorona renewably sourced polymer, exclusive to Mohawk, is made in part from corn sugar, a renewable resource. It requires 30% less energy to produce than nylon 6 and reduces greenhouse gasses by 63%. Every seven yards of SmartStrand with DuPont Sorona manufactured is the energy equivalent of saving one gallon of gasoline.
• Our unique PureBond engineered hardwood manufacturing process eliminates the addition of unnecessary formaldehyde into the finished product. PureBond meets Phase II emission standards set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and is FloorScore-certified for low emissions. Our reclaimed hardwood products keep material out of landfills—and produce strikingly beautiful floors. Most domestic hardwoods are certified sustainable by American Hardwood Manufacturers, and a number of Mohawk hardwood products are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.
• We recycle over one billion pounds of wood annually to make the core boards used in laminate flooring. In the U.S., this flooring, on average, contains 74% pre-consumer recycled material. Our laminates qualify as Environmentally Preferred Products (EPP) due to their high level of recycled content. And our patented Uniclic installation system eliminates the need for adhesives, making installations faster and easier. In fact, floors can be disassembled and reused as consumers choose new floors or styles change.
• Mohawk ceramic tile is manufactured from plentiful inorganic raw materials. Even so, we minimize consumption of these natural materials by using recycled materials in 97% of our manufactured products. These recycled materials come from our own industrial processes, as well as external ones.
These are only a few of the scores of sustainability initiatives Mohawk has in process. We recognize the challenges and considerable work that lie ahead, but are excited about the opportunities Mohawk has to create a better world for all of us.
To learn more, we encourage you to read Mohawk’s first annual sustainability report, available at mohawksustainability.com.
Our sustainability practices go back several decades. Here are some milestones—ones you can use to illustrate the scope of the flooring industry’s green commitment to consumers:
• Mohawk recycles more than three billion soft drink bottles each year to manufacture our EverStrand PET fiber. Since 1999, we’ve recycled more than 24 billion bottles and kept more than a billion pounds of plastic out of landfills. And the PET we recover is as good or better than virgin material.
• Our SmartStrand carpet made with DuPont Sorona renewably sourced polymer, exclusive to Mohawk, is made in part from corn sugar, a renewable resource. It requires 30% less energy to produce than nylon 6 and reduces greenhouse gasses by 63%. Every seven yards of SmartStrand with DuPont Sorona manufactured is the energy equivalent of saving one gallon of gasoline.
• Our unique PureBond engineered hardwood manufacturing process eliminates the addition of unnecessary formaldehyde into the finished product. PureBond meets Phase II emission standards set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and is FloorScore-certified for low emissions. Our reclaimed hardwood products keep material out of landfills—and produce strikingly beautiful floors. Most domestic hardwoods are certified sustainable by American Hardwood Manufacturers, and a number of Mohawk hardwood products are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.
• We recycle over one billion pounds of wood annually to make the core boards used in laminate flooring. In the U.S., this flooring, on average, contains 74% pre-consumer recycled material. Our laminates qualify as Environmentally Preferred Products (EPP) due to their high level of recycled content. And our patented Uniclic installation system eliminates the need for adhesives, making installations faster and easier. In fact, floors can be disassembled and reused as consumers choose new floors or styles change.
• Mohawk ceramic tile is manufactured from plentiful inorganic raw materials. Even so, we minimize consumption of these natural materials by using recycled materials in 97% of our manufactured products. These recycled materials come from our own industrial processes, as well as external ones.
These are only a few of the scores of sustainability initiatives Mohawk has in process. We recognize the challenges and considerable work that lie ahead, but are excited about the opportunities Mohawk has to create a better world for all of us.
To learn more, we encourage you to read Mohawk’s first annual sustainability report, available at mohawksustainability.com.
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