Shaw, a leading flooring manufacturer headquartered in Georgia, has developed a successful platform, known as the Shaw Green Edge, to promote their sustainable products and eco-friendly initiatives. With the goal of creating beautiful, but sustainable, carpeting, laminate, hardwood flooring, and more, Shaw has developed a "Cradle to Cradle" philosophy, which ensures that "waste is never an option" in their designs. As a result, they have also become known for recycling waste through their successful post-consumer carpet recycling and collection initiative. David Wilkerson, Shaw Residential's director of sustainability and environmental affairs, told MGB more about this program and other green practices that Shaw has been proud to put into action.
How was the company founded and at what point did Shaw begin to commit to sustainable design?
Since Shaw’s beginnings in 1946 (originally as Star Dye Company, a small business in Dalton, Georgia that dyed tufted scatter rugs), we have always had a firm commitment to the tenets of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social responsibility.
While the world today is vastly different from the world of 1946, our commitment to this triple bottom line has not waivered—in fact, it has guided our evolution as the world’s largest carpet manufacturer. And with 26,000 associates and $4 billion in sales annually, we are more committed than ever to Sustainability through InnovationTM—the Shaw Green EdgeR, and to creating the most beautiful—and sustainable—flooring in the world.
From a product-design standpoint, this means we seek to ensure that the products we design and manufacture are designed with Cradle to Cradle principles in mind. This approach requires looking beyond the immediacy of the finished product to consider where our ingredient materials come from and where the finished product will ultimately go at the end of its useful life. In addition to comprehensive assessments of our materials for their environmental responsibility, we then work to design products that can be disassembled and remanufactured back into themselves time and time again.
Because our sustainability commitment extends through every aspect and facet of our organization, Shaw also publishes a comprehensive annual corporate sustainability report (available online). In addition to more details on our corporate sustainability commitments, the report also highlights hard data surrounding our progress in areas such as waste, energy and water reduction and social responsibility.
Shaw is known for its post-consumer carpet recycling and collection initiative. How is this system organized and what specifically happens to the used carpet once it has been collected?
More than 5 billion pounds of carpet is sent to landfills in the United States every year, and as the world’s largest carpet manufacturer we feel a very strong sense of responsibility to helping decrease (and one day hopefully eliminate) this number.
So in addition to designing and manufacturing products that can be recycled back into themselves at the end of their useful lives, we also operate the largest post-consumer carpet reclamation and recycling program in the world. This multi-faceted program is accessible to both commercial and residential consumers and helps give them the option of recycling their carpet at the end of its useful life.
We work with a broad network of recycling partners to collect used carpet from residential and commercial applications then recycle that carpet back into carpet or through other avenues of recycling and reuse as necessary. All Type 6 Nylon, for example, is recycled through Shaw’s Evergreen Type 6 Nylon Recycling Facility in Augusta, Georgia. The only operational facility of its kind in the world, Evergreen breaks down Type 6 Nylon into its monomer, or building block, caprolactam. Shaw acquired Evergreen in 2005 and re-commissioned the facility in 2007 following extensive upgrades. Since then, we have recycled more than 100 million pounds of post-consumer carpet a year through Evergreen.
Consumers, carpet installers and retailers can recycle their carpet through designated Shaw collection sites throughout the nation—and they may not have to pay normal dumpster fees associated with the disposal of used carpet. To find one of the more than 50 collection sites in the US, visit shawfloors.com/recycle or call 800-434-9887.
What are some of your sustainable flooring products? How do they compare with traditional flooring products in regards to cost and quality?
Part of Shaw’s commitment to sustainability is a commitment to offering our customers environmentally responsible products that exceed the quality and performance of traditional products at a comparable price. We offer Cradle to Cradle certified and environmentally friendly products in all five flooring categories: carpet, hardwood, laminate, stone and ceramic tile. Our complete product offering can be accessed online.
Your company has also recently announced plans to construct a “Carpet to Energy” facility at one of its manufacturing plants. How can carpet material be transformed into energy? And does the company plan on developing similar facilities at other Shaw manufacturing sites?
Designated as Re2E or “reclaim to energy”, the facility will be completely fuelled by both pre- and post-consumer reclaimed carpet. The operation is expected to use a gasification process to convert more than 76 million pounds the reclaimed material into steam and electricity for the manufacturing site. The majority of this material is expected to come from our post-consumer carpet collection network. This is the second facility of its type for Shaw, and the project is slated for completion in fourth quarter 2010.
Our current energy reclamation facility, located at another Shaw manufacturing site in Dalton, Georgia, converts approximately 36 million pounds of pre-consumer carpet and wood manufacturing waste to steam energy through a gasification process. The new facility is projected to provide up to 50 thousand pounds of steam per hour—the equivalent of more than 90 percent of the manufacturing site’s steam demands. In addition, the operation will supply the adjacent fuel preparation building with half of its electricity or approximately 3.5 million kilowatt hours per year (the equivalent annual electric power consumption of 300 households).
Are there any other environmental initiatives or goals you are pursuing this year? Why do you believe it is so important to support a sustainable future?
Shaw has established public corporate goals for energy, water and waste reduction throughout our organization. In addition to our constant drive to improve in every area of our operations – and to further reduce our environmental impact in the process – we remain committed to these goals for 2010 and beyond:
• We will reduce our energy intensity by 25 percent by 2017 using 2007 as a baseline—a goal we’ve created in partnership with the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Save Energy Now Leader Program.
• We will reduce our waste to landfill by 90 percent by year-end 2011 using 2008 as a baseline—starting with a 25 percent reduction by year-end 2009, and a 50 percent reduction by year-end 2010.
• In addition to the significant reductions we have made in our water consumption since 1999, we will further reduce our water intensity by 25 percent by 2010, and by 40 percent by 2016 using year-end 2006 as a baseline.
• We have a target OSHA incidence rate of less than 1 by year-end 2009.
• We will measure and publicly report our greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as Founding Reporters of The Climate Registry.
We will also be publishing our 2009 sustainability report this year. Additional details about these corporate goals and our many ongoing sustainability initiatives and commitments can be found at shawgreenedge.com.
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