How Mohawk is Doing More With Floors
By Eric Canan
Discovering new Living Products with Mohawk, who continues to pioneer in the world of sustainable flooring.
Mohawk Industries is the largest flooring manufacturer in the US, but their leadership doesn’t stop there. In recent years their sustainability efforts have exploded under the guidance of Mohawk Flooring North America Chief Sustainability Officer George Bandy, Jr. He’s helped set and execute the company’s vision on sustainability in response to changing consumer trends. “We know the buyer today is a much more educated buyer than 10 years ago,” he says. “They expect us to move in a sustainable pathway … They expect that. We’re sharing with them that we hear them, and we’re demonstrating our actions by delivering solutions and being responsible in the way we do it.”
Mohawk has doubled down on that commitment. They’ve undertaken a massive effort to produce hundreds of Living Products stringently certified by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) as products that do more good than harm to the environment—the idea of leaving more social “handprints” than environmental footprints. They’ve opened showrooms across the world that meet countless aspects of the Living Building Challenge and LEED and WELL standards. And they support other flooring companies who are trying to do the same. “We don’t get to compete for Mother Nature. We don’t. It’s an unfair evaluation, it’s an unfair assessment,” Bandy says. “We’re trying to be a small part of a large ecosystem of industrial design. That’s all we’re trying to do. And if we do our part and convince others to do their part, I think we will have a significant impact.”
