Shaw Industries’ Asia carpet tile manufacturing facility in Nantong, China, has achieved LEED Silver status in the New Construction category. Shaw Industries Group, Inc. is the world’s largest carpet manufacturer and a leading floorcovering provider.
With the help of William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s firm, MBDC, Shaw became the world’s first flooring manufacturer to have its products Cradle to Cradle Certified. Together, MBDC and Shaw assessed the human and environmental health attributes of all ingredients and identified preferred substitutes. More than 60 percent of Shaw’s $4.5 billion in annual sales is from Cradle to Cradle certified products, and the company has made a commitment for 100 percent of its products to be designed to Cradle to Cradle protocols by 2030.
In response to Shaw Industries’ achievement, Tim Baucom, vice president of the commercial division at Shaw Industries, stated “This is the result of a tremendous amount of work performed by a cross-cultural team dedicated to ensuring this facility is a world class manufacturing operation.”
The Nantong facility opened in 2013, and is Asia’s first manufacturing facility to produce Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver carpet. The 200,000 square foot facility features new machinery and latest industry leading technology. Products manufactured in Nantong are a subset of what is currently produced at Plant 15 in Cartersville, Ga., USA featuring EcoWorx and EcoLogix backing, which are all backed by the same environmental certification and reclamation guarantee.
