SOLON, OHIO—Building on its long history of supporting the health of people and the planet, Tarkett North America is broadening its commitment to carbon neutrality and can now boast the largest collection of carbon neutral products in the industry.
For years, Tarkett has been continually reducing the embodied carbon of its products by designing for a circular economy, increasing the use of healthy, recycled materials, and finding new efficiencies in its manufacturing. With these improvements, the company has achieved lower embodied carbon than the industry average for its vinyl sheet, carpet tile and linoleum products sold in North America. Now, Tarkett North America is expanding its impact by offering the industry’s broadest portfolio of carbon neutral flooring products under the Certified Carbonfree Program.
“Everything we do at Tarkett is designed around achieving a regenerative circular economy,” said Roxane Spears, Vice President, Sustainability, Tarkett North America. “By continuously improving the health and reducing the environmental impact of our products, we strive to select materials and design products that can be recovered, recycled, and transformed—creating not just new products, but a more sustainable future for all humankind.”
Tarkett Floorprint
With this comprehensive approach to sustainability, Tarkett is working to make sure that all design project stakeholders can be proud of their Tarkett Floorprint—an idea that encompasses both reduced impact, and positive contributions to human health and the global climate.
The origins of this commitment to a positive Tarkett Floorprint stretch back to the company’s infancy when, in 1898, it developed a linoleum recipe with 94 percent natural raw materials, which is still followed today in Tarkett’s Lino product, and has since become the company’s first carbon negative solution. In 2007, in partnership with Carbonfund Foundation, the company began offering carbon neutral carpets by offsetting the full life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions across North America. And since 2009, Tarkett has intensified its efforts to lower the carbon impact of every flooring surface it manufactures throughout the world by lowering energy use, converting more factories to renewable energy and engaging in carbon offset programs.
In addition to linoleum, Tarkett’s collection of carbon neutral products now encompasses nearly every type of floor material, including luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) and planks, rubber tile, rubber sports flooring, vinyl sheet and carpet tile.
Certified Carbonfree
As part of the Carbonfree Product Certification program, Tarkett has measured the greenhouse gases emitted when manufacturing, delivering and installing products for its customers, then neutralized those emissions through the purchase of carbon offsets.
The first project is the Waste Energy Recovery Co-Generation Project—the first-ever Verified Carbon Standard project in South Korea. Consisting of a 400 megawatt co-generation plant at Hyundai Steel, the project utilizes surplus waste gases to generate nearly three million megawatt hours of electricity and more than one million tons of steam—used by both the plant and the local electric grid.
“Tarkett’s work is anchored in a bold objective to become a circular business, and every step we take toward that goal is a win for the planet. We are continuing to rapidly improve the Tarkett Floorprint in a variety of ways and providing radical transparency to our customers. Our industry-leading Material Health Statements (MHS) outline clear, third-party verified information behind the Tarkett Floorprint, including our embodied and offset carbon. This additional certification program through Carbonfund further helps Tarkett and its customers understand exactly how we’re reducing and offsetting carbon emissions at every step of our product lifecycle,” said Dhruv Raina, Product Stewardship Director for Tarkett North America.
A History of Environmental Firsts
Beginning in 2013, Tarkett has also contributed carbon offset purchases to the Tambopata-Bahuaja Biodiversity Reserve, which protects about 600,000 hectares of threatened tropical rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon. Safeguarding an area roughly the size of Los Angeles, the project reduces greenhouse gas emissions through the prevention of deforestation and forest degradation, restores damaged land and invests in local communities. Through the support of Tarkett and others, the Tambopata Reserve project has helped to protect nearly 1.5 million acres, and restore 10,000 acres—actions expected to avoid over four million tons of CO2 emissions by 2021. This is equivalent to 453,000 homes’ energy use for a year.1 Tarkett is continuing its support of this program as part of its Cradle to Cradle certification process.
More details and high-resolution photography for Tarkett’s carbon neutral products are available upon request. Additional information about the Carbonfree certification program and Tarkett’s overall commitment to carbon neutral solutions can be found here. For more information about Tarkett and the company’s comprehensive range of sustainable flooring solutions and accessories, visit www.tarkettna.com.
1 Source: Tambopata 2020 brochure
