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A lack of transparency is still clouding the sustainability debate, according to Lindsey Parnell, president and CEO, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, of InterfaceFLOR, the modular floor coverings manufacturer.
“We live in an age of green-wash, where over-claims and manipulation of the facts have blurred the lines between truth and hype. The only solution, we believe, is complete transparency,” he said.
As a result, InterfaceFLOR has worked closely with the European carpet industry’s environmental association, GUT, to develop an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which provides an unprecedented level of validated information on the environmental performance of InterfaceFLOR products.
The EPD is often described as a sophisticated product ‘label’ which lists all the ‘ingredients’ and environmental impacts of a product, throughout its lifecycle. This includes everything from energy and material consumption to waste generation and emissions.
The company, which has been operating in the Middle East for more than 30 years and opened a new regional headquarters in Dubai last November, has long used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to measure the environmental impact of its products and processes, and currently conducts an LCA on each of its carpet tile products.
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“We have always been open and honest about our company’s environmental performance – our Mission Zero progress – and are delighted to be able to apply the same clarity to our products. Our customers can now look at the facts, and only the facts, and draw their own conclusions,” said Parnell.
“We hope that in future inauthentic claims and certifications based on proprietary systems will disappear, with an EPD the main source of information companies will use to specify their flooring products.”
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