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 notable industry attention 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, major municipalities, architecture and design associations and more have committed to achieving this goal.

Our two-part series will dive into how Interface has taken bold steps toward the 2030 Challenge. Next week, Accepting the 2030 Challenge Part II will be published with more information about how Interface is tackling the challenge and how other product manufacturers can too. Today we address the impact of building products and making the commitment to the 2030 Challenge for Products.

Who is Committing to the 2030 Challenge?

Many architecture and design professionals are now familiar with 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 the Challenge. Interface has taken an important step in becoming the first manufacturer to commit to achieving this goal.

How does Architecture 2030 Address the Impact of Building Products?

In 2011, Architecture 2030 expanded the challenge to address the impacts caused by the building materials themselves. The embodied energy of building materials contributes an estimated 15% to 20% of the energy used by a building over a 50-year period. The 2030 Challenge for Products aims to reduce the embodied energy (and “embodied carbon emissions”) in building products by 50% by 2030, including the energy required for raw material extraction and processing, manufacturing, and transportation of the building products before they get to the jobsite.

How has InterfaceFLOR Taken Responsibility for its Carbon Footprint?

The first step is measuring the carbon footprint of a product then taking steps to reduce that footprint. Life Cycle Assessment is a common tool for analyzing the cradle-to-grave impacts of all materials, energy, transportation, and wastes associated with a product and calculating the global warming potential.

Carpet is a petroleum intensive product. The extraction and processing of raw materials dominates its carbon footprint. To aid in reducing our carbon footprint, InterfaceFLOR has a commitment to dematerialize, and use as few materials as needed, and to switch to 100% recycled raw materials.

InterfaceFLOR first calculated the carbon footprint of its carpet, from cradle to grave, in the late 1990s and in 2003 introduced the first offering of climate neutral carpet. Now all products sold in North & South America make up our climate neutral “Cool Carpet” offering.

Even with measurement and reduction efforts in place, how would a manufacturer know that product changes truly are reducing their carbon footprint? An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) allows for both the measurement of life cycle impacts and the direct comparison of the impacts of one product versus another.

Virgin nylon is a key driver of embodied carbon emissions in carpet products as nylon has a high embodied energy, similar to aluminum. Making a single change, reducing the virgin nylon, and utilizing increasing amounts of recycled content made a huge impact on the embodied carbon emissions required to produce a single carpet tile. For example, the recycled content of Aquafil Type 6 Nylon increased from an average of 11% in 2009 to 100% in 2011. The resulting change in carbon footprint for the entire carpet tile was a 45% reduction!

The Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products extends responsibility beyond architects and their buildings, and prompts manufacturers to take a closer look at the embodied carbon emissions of their products. Measurement and reduction of embodied carbon emissions is an additional step in addressing the impacts of climate change.

Stayed tuned next week as we answer more questions regarding Architecture 2030, Interface’s commitment to the program, and how more product manufacturers can make the commitment.