Flooring Suppliers You Should Know

The flooring industry has long been at the forefront of the sustainability movement, and ecologically-sound business principles continue to guide its evolution. The major players have placed sustainability at the very top of their agenda and continue to focus on developing eco-friendly products and practices.

InterfaceFLOR, for example, has pledged to take its environmental footprint down to zero by 2020.

‘Mission Zero’ is currently impacting every creative, manufacturing and business decision that the company makes.

Al Aqili Furnishings has announced that it will be making a point of promoting its eco-friendly product lines this year. This includes cradle-to-cradle carpets and carpet tiles from Shaw Contract Group, another leader in the sustainability stakes. Reiterating the trend is Instep, a local supplier of high-quality timber flooring, which is pushing its LEED-certified wood floors.

The other key trend impacting the flooring industry is increasing demand for choice and variety.

Interior designers are demanding heightened levels of freedom when it comes to their flooring choices, and manufacturers are responding accordingly.

For example, Ege offers its popular Highline design bank, which incorporates hundreds of designs.

This enables designers to experiment with countless colours and combinations. The company has also launched its Modular Shuffle collection, which is interesting in that there is no recurrence in the pattern. Each tile is unique, making for entirely original flooring solutions.

We talk to some of the key players in the flooring industry to find out more about what they have been up to.

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Ana Seixas, marketing director, MEA, on InterfaceFLOR’s eco-credentials.

Tell us about InterfaceFLOR.

InterfaceFLOR is a worldwide leader in the production of innovative, environmentally-responsible modular floor coverings. The company invented the concept of the carpet tile nearly 50 years ago and has been systematically developing it ever since. Today the company offers a wide range of commercial modular flooring, combining style, innovation and practicality to suit all kinds of buildings.

What sets you apart?

We have a passion for design, innovation and sustainability, and we love to set trends. We were the first carpet tile manufacturer to incorporate the concept of biomimicry into our designs and, through our Convert range (the only in the industry with post-consumer recycled nylon content) we can offer a total recycled content as high as 73%.

What are your bestselling products?

With hundreds of thousands of square metres sold, Straightforward, an unusual micro-tufted carpet tile, and recipient of the Red Dot Award in 2008, has to be one of the favourites of the design community in the Middle East. But, the Convert range – the first to be manufactured with a full colour spectrum of post-consumer recycled yarn – has also been received with great enthusiasm; its variety of patterns and colours is amazing and its sustainability credentials have made it a favourite for green building projects.

Any recent developments?

We are very excited about our new showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road. We have designed it as per LEED Gold standards and are looking forward to receiving designers and architects and showing them the latest trends in sustainable modular flooring. We have also reserved each first Thursday of the month for what we call “Awarehouse Tours”, an open day for university students, in which we will highlight the sustainable attributes of the space and address sustainability topics through different workshops and presentations.

How do we contact you?

Tel: +971 (0)504568436. Email: ana.seixas@interfaceflor.eu