by Shane Henson — October 10, 2011—InterfaceFLOR, global manufacturer of commercial carpet tile, has made much headway in its goal to be more transparent in regard to sustainability by embracing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to document the sustainability of its products. During Greenbuild 2011, conference attendees who visited the company’s booth were able to learn about its progress and EPDs in general through an interactive display.
Derived from a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), an EPD is often likened to a nutrition label on food, which is intended to support healthier eating choices. Similarly, an EPD is meant to help design specifiers—and end-user consumers—make better-informed decisions about the building products they choose. An EPD provides not only the product’s “ingredients” but also the potential environmental impact at every stage of its lifecycle, from raw material capture through to recycling/end of life. Specifically, an EPD documents:
- Product ingredients and the sources they’re derived from;
- Water and energy consumption throughout the lifecycle;
- Waste generated throughout the lifecycle;
- Assessment of environmental impacts at each lifecycle phase of the product—looking at such conditions as smog, acid rain,habitat destruction, eutrophication, etc.
According to InterfaceFLOR’s management, this year EPD evaluations will cover 90 percent of InterfaceFLOR’s flooring products, which puts the company well on track to fulfilling its pledge to have EPDs for its entire product portfolio by 2012. The company was also one of the first among contract furnishings manufacturers globally to provide EPDs.
