TileLetter is the industry's leading tile magazine

Sunday, January 26, 2025

The industry’s leading tile installation magazine

HomeNewsThe inaugural Flooring Sustainability Summit: an exercise in radical collaboration

The inaugural Flooring Sustainability Summit: an exercise in radical collaboration

Washington, D.C.– Last week, TileLetter attended the inaugural Flooring Sustainability Summit, held at the Westin Washington DC Downtown hotel here, and the Capitol Building.

Organized by a team from Tile Council of North America (TCNA) led by Deputy Executive Director Bill Griese with assistance from WAP Sustainability and managed by capable team of Taffy Event Strategies, the event represented an opportunity to open a dialog between industry segments around the topics of sustainability, embodied carbon reduction, material health —  and overall support for the environment and planet, achieved by standards and certifications for building materials. 

The event took place on July 17-18, kicking off the day after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected 38 businesses, universities and nonprofits to receive $160 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to report and reduce climate pollution linked to the production of construction materials and products. $2.2 million was obligated for the TCNA to support technical assistance and help in development of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), and $6 million for green efforts at the American Wood Council. 

Bill Griese of TCNA (l.) moderated the opening keynote with (l. to r.) with Peter Templeton, USGBC, Vicki Worden from GBI, Alexander Cochran of AIA and Cheryl Durst of IIDA.

The conference was packed with panels and keynote speakers from flooring segments that included tile, carpet, vinyl, laminate and wood as well as standards organizations, credentialing bodies that read like a who’s who of sustainability: mindfulMATERIALS (mM), United States Green Building Council (USGBC), International Interior Designer Association (IIDA), Green Building Initiative (GBI), Habitable, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), EPA, International WELL Building Institute, The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Natural Stone Institute (NSI), North American Laminate Flooring Association (NALFA), National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE). 

The panels explored alignment on embodied carbon, education on green building, and health and material reporting, supported by breakout workshops for attendees and presenters to dive deeper into the topics raised by the panels. 

Day two, the conference moved to the Visitors Center at the U.S. Capitol, where it received a congressional welcome by Elizabeth Joseph, Legislative Director for Michael Guest (MS-03), a detailed dive into carpet recovery efforts by Bob Robert Peoples from CARE, and an extensive report on the finely-honed EU initiatives and their impact on flooring presented by Mauro Rullo of Confindustria Ceramica. Keynote briefings included a talk by Jeff Grove of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International on the process of achieving voluntary consensus at ASTM, Sarah Templin of Gensler discussing the firm’s sustainability standards. Elliot Doomes, Commissioner of the the Public Buildings Service at the U.S. General Services Administration gave a closing keynote on federal procurement and the strong emphasis on green issues baked in to that process. 

At the Capitol, TCNA’s Bill Griese provided a list of takeaways that resulted from the panel discussions and workshops from day one. They included:

(l. to r.) Bill Griese, TCNA; Jennie Romer, EPA; Elliot Doomes, GSA, and Eric Astrachan, TCNA. Romer announced that TCNA was a selectee for funding at the Congressional Auditorium at the Captiol on day two of the conference.
  1. Need for consensus  to define sustainability terms like embodied carbon and simplify the complex terminology and concepts around sustainability. Cheryl Durst, of IIDA, on the opening day keynote panel, kicked off the call for a common lexicon or dictionary of sustainability terms to simplify the process, which reverberated throughout the event. Brittany Storm, Sustainability Manager for conference sponsor MAPEI, represented mindfulMATERIALS (mM)  on the Education on Green Building Standardization panel. She explained mM’s Common Materials Framework resource is designed to bring groups together with common language that stakeholders are clamoring for as regards sustainability.  “It’s a simple way for asking; a simple way for bringing everyone together,” she said. “The language piece is very important.” She urged the industry to “volunteer and bring your voice to the table for your products and standards.”
  2. Radical Collaboration – Mike Johnson of the International Living Future Institute, speaking on the Education on Green Building Standardization panel,  coined this phrase to describe what needs to take place to reach sustainability goals. It resonated and kept coming up in workshops, encouraging the industry to think boldly within a segment and with others from different backgrounds who have common interests. 
  3. Need for alignment across the supply/value chain:
    • Education, simplification, communications
    • Demand driver alignment – There is a push to understand what is driving this effort. Manufacturers that continue to invest in sustainability constantly evaluate why and what their ROI is. Green building standards organizations can help demystify standards and certifications and provide good information about certified products. It’s essential to develop better metrics to keep demand drivers clear for suppliers.
    • Standardization alignment – There is a focus on durability as well as the cradle-to-grave cycle. Clarity is needed for products and finishes in flooring since they are very different from the main drivers of standardization and certification: concrete, steel, asphalt and glass. 
    • Owner awareness: service life is important and impacts carbon and fiscal accounting.
  4. There is a need for holistic assessments that take multiple factors into account
  5. Multi-attribute considerations are important:
    •  Avoid unintended consequences from carbon tunnel vision: embodied carbon and material health both matter. 
    • Manufacturers are encouraged to balance ingredients to develop a low carbon, durable and healthy product. 
    • Designers must balance energy efficiency, budget, aesthetics and durability and  consider more than just carbon or just health — instead seek a, balance of the two.
  6. The role of the distributor matters. When there is a disconnect between owners and manufacturers, distributors can help provide education and opportunities.
  7. Relationships matter. It’s important to get the green building community together to talk directly and put a face behind the vast majorities of these rating systems you work with every day. 

The tile industry responds

The Mohawk group was out in force at the summit, (l. to r.): Cathleen Smith and Jessica Kwak, Dal-Tile; Malisa Maynard, Mohawk; and Paij Thorn-Brooks and Amber Leigh Martinson of Dal-Tile.

Malisa Maynard, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mohawk Industries — and a panelist on the Health and Material Reporting panel — said, “ It’s good to reflect how far the industry has come collectively.  Also we have a lot of work ahead of us, so it’s been really important to connect with people with a lot of passion for sustainability and a lot of good ideas and best practices to share collectively.”

Sam Bruce, President of conference sponsor National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA), said,  “I think it’s a good start to a lot of discussions that need to be had. I think in the long run, we’re going to benefit, and the installer is going to benefit a lot. 

He illustrated the important point of looking at multiple product attributes, and taking a holistic approach. He observed that “there is a need to make sure information on emissions and green building is reliable to the cause.” He noted that tile has the longest life cycle of any other flooring product, making it “a much better green building option than other materials. Yet tile is not always specified due to commercial and government rating systems that architects and designers are required to follow to obtain certifications like LEED. And, it also has an effect on residential projects when architects and designers are considering green building.  

NTCA President Sam Bruce shared his thoughts about tile and green building and the importance of tile’s longevity when considering product emissions – and how that impacts the tile installer and contractor.

“As tile installers/tile contractors, this has a direct effect on us,” he added. “When less tile is being specified, there is less work for us. I see it everyday when I look at the scope of projects that we are bidding…. other products may be less expensive during the initial build or have a better emissions rating, however if you have to replace this product three times during the lifespan of tile, then the cost of tile becomes much lower and the emissions of tile become much lower during the lifespan.”

Bruce is hopeful that the Flooring Sustainability Summit is in the “beginning stages of fixing this [false] narrative when considering emissions. If green building is the goal, then the appropriate information needs to be considered,” he added. “Tile manufacturers will benefit in the same way as tile installer/tile contractors because their products are currently not being specified in areas that it has historically been used for. In the long run, the flooring industry will be competing to lower emissions. As long as they are able to do this without higher cost, it will benefit the industry as a whole.”

The next Flooring Sustainability Summit will be held here, at the Mayflower Hotel, July 15-17, 2025. Visit flooringsummit.com for details.

Editorial Director and Senior Writer | [email protected] |  + posts

Lesley Goddin has been writing and journaling since her first diary at age 11. Her journey has taken her through a career in publishing and publicity, landing her the editor position of TileLetter and its special publications in 2006. Her goal is to educate, inspire, recognize and encourage those in the tile industry -- especially the tile and stone contractor.

- Advertisment -

Most Popular

- Advertisment -