New Sustainable Carpet Standard Announced

A new standard for assessing the environmental friendliness of carpet was announced at the 2007 Greenbuild Conference in Chicago.

The new sustainability standard, approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), addresses chemicals and materials used in manufacturing carpet, the energy used in production, the use of recycled or bio-based content, methods of disposal and/or reuse and the overall environmental performance of manufacturers.

The standard aims to help consumers sort out the complex sustainable attributes and encourage manufacturers and their suppliers to seek out or develop environmentally preferable processes, practices, power sources and materials.

The sustainability standard builds on earlier efforts by the carpet industry to address environmental issues. It aims to measure the environmental footprint of carpet products by looking at the whole supply chain and considering five major performance categories: public health and environment; energy and energy efficiency; bio-based or recycled materials, manufacturing and reclamation and end of life management.

More information is available at www.gatech.edu.