Last summer, InterfaceFLOR featured a very successful series of guest blog posts on the topic of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) - a full public disclosure of a product’s ingredients, use of energy and material resources, and environmental impacts during its life cycle. Recently EPDs have gained a notable marketplace use through the 2030 Challenge for Products and inclusion in the draft LEED 2012 rating system.

This month, we take a closer look at the 2030 Challenge, a new program championed by Ed Mazria and his organization, Architecture 2030. The 2030 Challenge advocates for carbon neutral buildings in 2030 and over 1000 design firms and major municipalities, associations including AIA, US Conference of Mayors, USGBC, ASHRAE, ASID and more have committed to achieving this goal.

Our final post in our two-part series takes a look at how brands and product manufacturers can work toward the goal of meeting or exceeding the 2030 Challenge for Products. While an ambitious goal, we feel it is a necessary step, not just for environmental sustainability, but also to sustain business as a manufacturer.

The Marketplace Trends Toward Transparency

We are observing an increased demand for product transparency, including recent drafts of LEED 2012 from the US Green Building Council, HBN’s Healthy Product Declaration, Pharos and others. Customers want to see the data, not just a rating.

Environmental Product Declarations follow ISO 14025 international standards which define common guidelines for life cycle based environmental information and allows for “comparable” LCA reporting within specific product categories. As Heather Gadonniex, EPD Program Manager at UL Environment said, “EPDs help move the dialogue beyond single attributes to more holistic measures of environmental performance. Used appropriately, this can result in the increased selection and use of environmentally preferable products.”InterfaceFLOR has long used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as an internal decision-making tool to clearly analyze the materials, energy, and wastes involved in each phase of a product’s total existence. Paired with EPDs, the LCA impacts are packaged in a useful way for external audiences.

How to meet the 2030 Challenge for Products

InterfaceFLOR is proud to be the first manufacturer to commit to the 2030 Challenge for Products. The Challenge has much in common with our Mission Zero goal and builds on our leadership around transparency and reducing the carbon footprint of our products.

Meeting the Challenge requires having an Environmental Product Declaration or a 3rd party verified life cycle assessment. In parallel, it asks designers to specify products that are measuring and reducing their embodied carbon. InterfaceFLOR has been an early adopter of EPDs, utilizing them since 2009. By the end of 2012, all InterfaceFLOR products will have an EPD.

To meet the Challenge for Products, the embodied carbon of a product must be reduced by 50% compared to industry average by 2030. As evidenced by the 45% footprint reduction already obtained in its Type 6 Nylon products, InterfaceFLOR is confident we can beat the industry average as well. The advances we’ve made in switching to renewable energy sources for manufacturing, energy efficiency gains, and raw material changes toward recycled sources, give us an advantage in achieving significant reductions in carbon footprint.

Architecture 2030 for Products lays out an ambitious goal for the building products industry, but for InterfaceFLOR, it’s merely a milestone on the road to Mission Zero. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and we invite other manufacturers and designers to join us in adopting this new challenge to transform building products and help put the brakes on climate change. Let us know how your business is changing pace for climate change transformation.