InterfaceFLOR's new era in sustainability reporting: full product transparency
29/6/2010
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InterfaceFLOR has announced moves towards full product transparency and has achieved a European first with an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for carpet tiles, more details of which can be seen at http://www.interfaceflor.eu/epd

The independently validated EPD discloses an unprecedented level of detail about the lifecycle impacts of InterfaceFLOR's carpet tile. It also marks a significant step forward for transparency in the industry which, the company hopes, will change the way building materials are marketed and procured.

 InterfaceFLOR believes that customers in the building and architecture industry are 'being misled by a wave of partial and selective claims about green credentials' and that there is a need for higher marketing standards where claims are based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The company has long used LCA to measure and reduce the environmental impact of its products and processes, and currently conducts an LCA on every one of its carpet tile products.

The EPD goes a step further by making public LCA information which is European industry standard and third-party validated. InterfaceFLOR aims to have EPDs for its entire product range by the end of 2012. The EPD is much more than a green label, revealing all the 'ingredients' of a product, where they come from, and the environmental impacts throughout its lifecycle. This includes everything from energy and material consumption to waste generation and emissions.

Ramon Arratia, sustainability director for InterfaceFLOR in Europe said: 'Most of the focus in sustainability reports is on the company's own operations but most of the impacts aren't captured because they are in other parts of the product lifecycle. The power of full product transparency is to create competition on real product sustainability performance, rather than the current false battle for the greenest communications. We aim to kick-start the trend, having all our products covered by EPDs by 2012.'

To read a blog that discusses full product transparency and EPDs, please visit http://www.interfaceflorcutthefluff.com/