Results

Tarkett

Tarkett designs, manufactures and sells vinyl, wood, laminate, sports and other specialty flooring products for the residential and commercial markets in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Key Environmental Performance Areas:

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Facilities)
• Waste Reduction and Recycling (Facilities)
• Water Use Reduction (Facilities)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Facilities)

In 2011, as part of the Green Portfolio Program, Tarkett continued measuring energy consumption in its manufacturing facilities. In 2010 and 2011, Tarkett implemented a new methodology for collecting data and began collecting data from an additional facility.  As a result of these two changes, Tarkett is now using 2010 as its baseline year in order to provide comparable performance results.1

In absolute terms, GHG emissions from these sources increased approximately 3%, compared to 2010, much of which can be attributed to a product mix shift and growth in high-carbon electricity regions (especially Russia), which also led to a decrease of efficiency by approximately 2% (GHGs/square meter of product). This change resulted in a moderate increase in both costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Results

Tarkett: Manufacturing Plants GHG Efficiency (2010 Baseline)

Actions

Despite the increase in overall GHG emissions, which was driven by the above-mentioned product mix effects, Tarkett implemented initiatives in 2011 to help lower energy consumption and GHG emissions where possible, for example:

• Implemented energy management/mapping systems to better understand consumption patterns
• Replaced electrical engines by new low consumption engines, where possible
• Increased share of renewable energies used in the facilities through local installations using renewable energy sources (e.g., biomass out of wood scraps)

Future Plans

In 2012 and 2013, Tarkett is continuing to focus on improving energy efficiency in its manufacturing facilities (each plant has a 5% annual energy consumption reduction target) and is considering or actively implementing additional strategic initiatives, including:

• Replacing heat and cold production equipment in several sites
• Launching an energy loss tracking program to reduce electricity consumption called “FINULOL,” which tracks seven types of energy loss: Fossil, Inefficient, Non-optimized, Useless, Leakage, Over and Lost energy consumption

Waste Reduction and Recycling (Facilities)

Tarkett has a strong record in sustainable development and pioneered the concept of flooring recycling as early as 1957.

In 2011, as part of the Green Portfolio Program, Tarkett focused on reducing and recycling waste from its manufacturing facilities against a 2010 baseline. In 2011, Tarkett decreased the post-manufacturing waste going to landfills in absolute terms by approximately 10% and improved its waste efficiency by approximately 11% (tons of waste/square meters of product). These improvements have helped Tarkett realize a landfill cost avoidance of more than $1.5 million. This represents approximately 16,800 tons of waste avoided.

In addition to the reduction of manufacturing waste, Tarkett has developed “take-back” programs with installers and other professional customers to prevent post-installation and post-consumer flooring from going to landfills. The ReUse (in France and Sweden) and ReStart (in the USA) programs have collected more than 13,800 metric tons of flooring scrap in 2011.

Tarkett operates four in-house recycling facilities to reprocess flooring waste into components to produce new floors, thus avoiding the use of virgin raw material. According to Tarkett’s analysis, this has generated in 2011 a cost avoidance for Tarkett evaluated at around $4 million.

Results

Tarkett: Manufacturing Waste Reduction (2010 Baseline)2

Actions

In 2011, Tarkett achieved these results through the following initiatives:

• Committed to the Cradle-to-Cradle® approach, which continuously drives its Research and Innovation activities towards ensuring that more manufacturing waste enters into biological or technical cycles; in 2011, Tarkett was awarded with the Cradle-to-Cradle Silver Certificate for its Linoleum range
• Completed local, site-specific initiatives, including, transferring waste to biomass and replacing VOC-based inks with water based inks

Future Plans

In 2012 and 2013, Tarkett is continuing to focus on reducing waste and is considering or actively implementing new strategic initiatives, including:

• Continuing to apply Cradle-to-Cradle principles in product design; early 2012, a second range (Wood) has already received a Silver certificate
• Supporting the development of recycling processes for post-installation and post-use flooring materials, an area that remains very challenging for the industry and one where Tarkett has the ambition to lead in the long term
• Developing take-back programs through a community of local partners and systems facilitating reclamation and recycling to make possible the above strategic initiatives
• Performing audits to track new potential uses of waste

Water Use Reduction (Facilities)

In 2011, as part of the Green Portfolio Program, Tarkett focused on reducing water consumption in its manufacturing facilities against a 2010 baseline. Tarkett has reduced fresh water consumption in absolute terms by approximately 13% and has improved its water efficiency by approximately 14% (liters of water/square meters of product). These improvements have helped Tarkett to avoid consuming approximately 155 million liters of water in 2011.3

Results

Tarkett: Water Consumption Efficiency Results (2010 Baseline)

Actions

In 2011, Tarkett achieved these results by the continuous implementation of closed circuit cooling systems.

Future Plans

In 2012 and 2013, Tarkett is continuing to focus on the reduction of fresh water use by considering or actively implementing the following initiatives:

• Developing local solutions to implement closed industrial water circuits in its facilities by 2015
• Implementing closed-loop circuits in Tarkett facilities company-wide will aid with their long-term objective to eliminate the use of fresh potable water for our process
• Auditing of plants  by water specialists to generate water consumption reduction plans, such as using ultrasonic cleaning to replace water cleaning

Tarkett enrolled in the Green Portfolio Program in 2010 and is reporting as part of the program for the second time. For more on Tarkett’s sustainability efforts including historic trends, please visit www.tarkett.com.

Note: Reported numbers are rounded and may not produce the same results when used to analyze percent changes or total impact.