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Floor Covering Weekly Recognizes Shaw Industries’ Achievements in Sustainability with Top Honors

Shaw Industries Group, Inc.

Published 6 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw) recently earned top honors at Floor Covering Weekly’s 10th annual GreenStep awards, which recognize the flooring industry’s contributions to sustainability. Shaw received the magazine’s most prestigious recognition, the Pinnacle Award, in addition to Honoree awards in Practice/Process, Promotion and People categories.

“Shaw is proud to continue our legacy of sustainability leadership. From our first Pinnacle win in 2009 to our most recent win this year, our sustainability strategy has continued to evolve as market dynamics shift, stakeholder priorities evolve and technologies advance,” shared Susan Farris, vice president of sustainability and corporate communications at Shaw. “We’ve maintained a keen focus on Cradle to Cradle design principles, which guide our actions around material health, material reuse, energy, water and social responsibility.”

Pinnacle Award: Shaw Signs U.N. Global Compact, Embeds Principles Within Supply Chain:

When Shaw signed the U.N. Global Compact, a widely recognized set of principles protecting human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption standards in late 2017, the company joined organizations from 170 countries in the world’s largest sustainability initiative. Seeking to impact positive change on a larger scale, Shaw then looked to its thousands of supply chain partners to uphold the same standards, embedding the Compact’s 10 Principles into related terms and conditions for suppliers. Because of this, suppliers doing business with Shaw agree to the Compact’s 10 Principles, ensuring they adhere to the same high standards Shaw has set for its own operations.

Practice/Process Honoree: Shaw Reduces Carbon Footprint by Opening Combined Heat & Power Plant

Thanks to efficiency gains from opening a Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plant at its Columbia, S.C. fiber manufacturing facility, Shaw will eliminate an estimated 26,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, the equivalent of taking 5,500 cars off the road. A natural gas turbine engine produces electricity and steam -- enough to meet the entire steam demand of the plant and the majority of electricity. CHP can operate with overall efficiency of 75 percent or greater, compared to 35 percent efficiency for electricity from the fuel entering a power plant and going to its end use, meaning Shaw will effectively use the energy it produces with less waste than ever before.

People Honoree: Shaw Launches Successful Women’s Innovation Network Middle East

Shaw’s first associate resource group, Women’s Innovation Network (WiN), offers associates a platform to engage, connect and grow. Soon after establishing a U.S. presence, the group expanded to the Middle East, a region with a tremendous need for support of women. WiN Middle East supports women in the local design and construction industry by providing resources and opportunities to help them drive successful careers. Engaging with peers from powerhouse organizations helped Shaw’s in-market WiN team to build strong relationships with stakeholders and raise the brand’s profile in a growing and challenging market. A unique and needed concept, Shaw is proud to pioneer WiN Middle East.

Promotion Honoree: Shaw Goes ‘All In’ on Education

Shaw is dedicated to creating a better future through built environments, which requires the collective efforts of all involved in designing offices, hospitals, living spaces, and hotels. In 2016 and 2017, Shaw joined forces with Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, BuildingGreen, Google and others to host a national workshop series entitled “Built Positive: Help Build What’s Next,” across the country. Five additional Educational Lab sessions took place at GreenBuild 2017. Together, more than 1,000 industry leaders were reached, increasing the ripple effects of change.

About Shaw Industries

Shaw Industries Group, Inc. is more than a flooring company – we are 22,000 people united in our vision of creating a better future for our customers, for our people, for our community and for our company. We provide carpet, resilient, hardwood, tile & stone, laminate, synthetic turf and other specialty items for residential and commercial markets worldwide. We meet diverse customer needs through an expansive portfolio of brands, including: Anderson Tuftex, COREtec, Patcraft, Philadelphia Commercial, Shaw Contract, Shaw Floors, Shaw Hospitality, Shaw Sports Turf, Southwest Greens, USFloors and more.