Press Release
Floor Covering Weekly Honors Shaw Industries for its sustain[HUMAN]ability™ Efforts

Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw) recently earned top honors at Floor Covering Weekly’s 11th 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 top honors in the Practice/Process, Promotion/Communications, and People award categories, as well as being named honoree in the International category.  

“We’re honored to receive GreenStep Awards in multiple categories and proud of what we’ve accomplished,” says Susan Farris, Shaw Industries’ vice president of sustainability and corporate communications. “At Shaw, sustainability is about people and the planet. We seek to create innovative, sustainable products and solutions through innovative, sustainable processes that help the countless people who experience our products daily have a positive experience. Sustainability is a journey and receiving these awards is further validation that we are on the right track.” 

Pinnacle Award: Shaw Helps Sustain HUMAN Ability Through Acoustics Leadership

Unveiled in 2018, Shaw Industries’ patent-pending acoustics tool, Sound Advisor®, showcases the impact ceiling and floor construction, flooring and underlayment selection have on room acoustics. The web-based tool helps usersmake more informed design and product selection decisions by specifying their building’s ceiling construction, floor construction, flooring product of choice, and optional underlayment, and hearing the actual sound produced from an IIC test using their exact specifications. 

Practice/Process Award: Shaw’s Latest Investments Enhance Ability to Turn Plastic Bottles Into Flooring

In 2018, Shaw enhanced its efforts to turn plastic bottles into flooring in two key ways: (1) Shaw found new outlets for recycled plastic bottles with its new concept -- PET resilient flooring designed for commercial spaces. The innovative product has been named among BuildingGreen’s Top 10 Products for 2019. (2) Shaw took a step forward in its ability to process lower-value plastic. As the company invested $250 million in its Andalusia, Ala. facility, it expanded upon innovative technology used in other Shaw facilities to be able to process more recycled PET and to use a broader range of clear plastic bottles while maintaining the quality of its final product. 

Promotion/Communication Award: ‘Backed by Blue:’ Communicating How Shaw Floors’ LifeGuard Contributes to a Positive Human Experience

Shaw Floors has re-engineered its patent-pending LifeGuard® Spill-proof backing to be a distinctive shade of blue, so consumers with active lives and the 85 million U.S. families who own pets know at a glance they’re getting LifeGuard, the best accident protection available for their carpet -- that they’re ‘Backed by Blue™.’ A market-disrupting innovation exclusive to Shaw Floors, LifeGuard is a patent-pending, thermoplastic backing ensuring 100 percent of odor-causing spills or pet accidents are prevented from soaking into the carpet’s pad and subfloor. 

International Honoree: Shaw Achieves Carbon Neutrality in Scotland and China Facilities

Challenges of climate change are global in scale and require a global response. Shaw Industries understands its operations can empower change for the better on the necessary, global scale. Instrumental in this effort are Shaw’s international carpet tile manufacturing operations in Sanquhar, Scotland and Nantong, China, which were among Shaw’s carpet manufacturing facilities to achieve carbon neutrality in 2018.