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A MILESTONE ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION FROM THE MOHAWK GROUP

-- Interior Design, 5/18/2006 10:49:00 AM

Continually steadying its focus on sustainable activities and the environmental impact of its products and business, The Mohawk Group has developed a new generation of its ground-breaking Ultra Performance System (UPS) technology, UPSre, adding in untold measure to its environmental soundness.

UPSre includes the highest post-consumer recycled content of any commercial broadloom system in the industry. The recycled materials are incorporated directly into the UPS foundation yielding carpeting that has a minimum of 15% post-consumer content based on total product weight. This development, according to Frank Endrenyi, The Mohawk Group’s VP Technology & Sustainable Development, has significant implications:

•The environmental benefits of UPS’s longevity over standard tufted products already contribute toward reducing the environmental footprint by increasing the lifespan of tufted carpets by several years, thereby reducing the need for additional cycles of replacement.

•UPSre now increases environmental benefits by reducing the need to mine natural resources from the earth and substituting those resources with materials that are destined for America’s landfills.

•UPSre has the potential, in its first year alone, to divert over 8 million pounds of discarded materials from landfills and make useful, long-lasting carpet products.

•UPSre can be recycled at the end of its life and be converted into more useful products for a second, third or fourth lease on life.

A History of Environmental Commitment

The company has over 100 products manufactured with significant recycled content, including commercial carpet with the trademarked ColorStrand Infinity nylon fiber, residential carpet using fiber made from recycled plastic soda bottles, plus doormats made from old tires.Mohawk, in coordination with Dow Chemical, has introduced a commercial carpet made with a sustainable bio-based soybean derivative-attached cushion.

Not afraid to turn the microscope on itself, Mohawk Industries has been successful in developing a Corporate Waste Management and Recycling Task Force that continually monitors online its own plants’ waste and is responsible for developing new and improved waste reduction technologies.As a result, valuable resources are being conserved and millions of pounds of material reused.

While the development of UPSre represents a monumental milestone, it’s only one of scores of initiatives that have been undertaken by The Mohawk Group and its parent company, Mohawk Industries, in their history of commitment to sustainability.