How to Simplify the Quest for Carbon-friendly Carpet
Finding manufacturers who meet stringent requirements to ensure all the Green Building Points you need and want can be a task made easy if you know where to look.
Reducing emissions in your build is a two-fold task:
- During the manufacture of the product
- Across the life of the product
When you’re researching for carpets, choosing to specify from businesses that do the work for you in curating products that will meet your green goals is a breath of fresh air.
Heritage Carpets align with partners who have sustainability at their core. Modulyss, Bentley Mills LA and Fletco Carpets are continually refining their processes and materials to be more carbon friendly.
We work with design practices and specifiers who require the highest standards possible to attain top Green Star ratings. We can help you select carpets that meet your requirements.
LIFECYCLE IMPACT
Greenhouse emissions can be reduced in a number of ways.
Using recycled materials:
Our partners Fletco, modulyss and Bentley Mills all increasingly utilise recycled materials such as nylon and post-consumer plastic bottles, including marine waste such as fishing nets. Modulyss partners with Healthy Seas to encourage the use of recyclable Nylon 6 in fishing nets and the recovery of those nets to regenerate into virgin yarn. This reduces global waste, preserving marine life. Fletco also uses natural wool fibres in their Hojer range and PET in a number of their designs.
Waste carpets can be recycled in an endless loop and backings or waste from the manufacturing process can be recycled to use in more backings (for example modulyss ecoBack is made from 75% recycled materials and is designed to be recycled).
Heritage Carpets will reclaim uplifted carpets to either re-use in other projects or to be returned to the manufacturer to be recycled. We also support Sustainable Coastlines and Ghost Diving NZ, part of the Healthy Seas network, which works tirelessly around the globe to recover marine waste for recycling.
Using clean energy:
Our most recent Partner, Fletco Carpets, uses only 100% renewable, CO2-neutral energy. The electricity for the entire factory is wind-generated.
Both Bentley and modulyss have introduced renewable energy into their production.
During the last seven years, Bentley has reduced consumption of electricity by 34%, natural gas by 53%, and water by 68%, all while doubling output.
Off-setting carbon:
Bentley is a carbon-neutral business, which operates out of the world’s first LEED EB OM Gold carpet manufacturing facility.
Bentley is active in community outreach programmes and carbon offset projects targeted at health and livelihood strategies – clean water, sustainable infrastructure and more – investing in natural climate solutions including green area restoration and renewable energy technology programmes.
Read about Bentley’s sustainable approach on their website
Modulyss offer their Limit Your Footprint programme which supports the selection of their most environmentally friendly products and processes, along with their CO2RE carbon off-set programme, supplying insulated and efficient cookstoves to families in Africa to reduce emissions – and deaths due to pollutants.
CLAIMS BACKED UP WITH DATA
The New Zealand Green Building Council requires hard data in order to prove reduced environmental impact and thereby gain Green Building points.
In brief, NZGBC has 3 pillars – they are key things to look for in products you’re considering for your project:
- Low emissions from Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).
- Sustainability and Transparency (look for eco-labels and Environmental Product Declarations-EPD)
- PVC reduction
All our partners are certified with Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) which provide verified, registered documentation communicating transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products.
Our products are PVC free and meet the standards for VOC.
Modulyss also gains Green Star points through their Good Environmental Choice Australia GECA rating, and both modulyss and Bentley provide Declare Labels, designed for product transparency.
The 3 brands we represent here in New Zealand have either GUT certificates or CRI Green Label Plus independent verification of their product emissions.
In addition, modulyss, Fletco and Bentley Mills meet or exceed the environmental requirements of their region, which may or may not be recognised in New Zealand but still hold weight as assurances of quality and environmental impact. For example, Cradle to Cradle.
LOW CARBON DESIGN PROJECTS
Recent projects that have demanded high environmental standards so as to attain Green Star Points through the NZGBC include: Buddle Findlay by Warren and Mahoney (modulyss DSGN Absolute 912 and 930) and Minter Ellison by JASMAX (modulyss NXTgen 915).
One of the latest releases from Bentley Mills LA is the Strictly Business and Course of Action duo, and the Daytripper Collection, just two examples made of 100% recycled nylon yarn, with CRI Green Label Plus® certification, Declare® labels and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
Fletco’s Chain flat weave is made from 100% recycled nylon, while Layers is made from recycled PET (plastic bottles) and Højer Kontract is made from 80% wool.