State of Sustainability: In key metrics, flooring producers leading the sustainability charge are starting to row in the same direction – July 2026

By Darius Helm

Sustainability has been transforming industry, energy and the built environment over the last three decades. Along the way, the metrics and tools to measure sustainability were being developed at the same time that the concept of sustainability itself, the understanding of sustainability, was evolving and deepening. But over the last few years, the flooring industry at least seems to have settled on some core tools for both achieving and measuring green gains.

For instance, there’s a trend among many manufacturers to reframe the conversation around carbon offsets, reflecting both controversy surrounding the legitimacy of some offset providers and the visceral sense that there are no tangible threads connecting, say, sustainable farming programs in Borneo and the actual physical flooring that’s being evaluated. Needless to say, an offset that is verifiably legitimate does in fact contribute positively to global sustainability.

Manufacturers that do use offsets to offer carbon-neutral products are more discerning about their offset providers, with plenty of transparency and verification. And most emphasize how they are a stopgap, a temporary measure while the firm continues to develop mechanisms to reduce the global warming potential of its specific products. Others pay for offsets but don’t attach them to their products, or don’t use them at all. 

The other side of the same coin is a focus on materials and ingredients, and not just on the inherent qualities of the materials, but also their provenance, lifecycle and end-of-life options. Firms are starting to add carbon-capture materials into their products, made from the carbon of captured carbon dioxide emissions. And they’re cautiously stepping into the bio-based arena, mostly using seed oils, plant matter and wood materials.

Manufacturers are also publishing the embodied carbon in their products, expressed as kilograms of carbon dioxide-equivalent per square meter. Right now, it’s being used on common commercial products like carpet tile and some ceramic and LVT, but it’s expanding across the categories.

Another metric that’s increasingly used to measure sustainability progress is reductions in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. It’s a challenging task. Scope 1, direct emissions from the manufacturer, and Scope 2, indirect emissions like electricity generated off-site, are the most quantifiable, and several manufacturers are measuring and reducing those emissions. 

Scope 3, which in some cases can account for the vast majority of emissions, covers upstream and downstream emissions, and that includes extraction of raw materials, transportation, processing, and at the other end, transportation, installation and even end-of-life disposition. Even at the product level, tools like environmental product declarations (EPDs) only go from cradle to gate. Beyond that gate is a sea of churning mathematical variables that the sustainability community will have to wade through and somehow organize and quantify.

RESILIENT UPDATE

When it comes to the greening of resilient flooring, the industry is at a crossroads. The sheer volume of vinyl-based flooring is massive, second only to carpet. And down the road, the waste stream is going to lean more and more toward vinyl as the massive volumes of rigid-core flooring installed residentially over the last few years serve out their functional lifespans. 

Historically, the vinyl waste stream has been seen as tainted due to additives like orthophthalates and heavy metals, which were phased out 15 to 20 years ago. Nevertheless, unlike some polymers, PVC requires some form of plasticizer to function as a floor, and not all manufacturers use the same plasticizers, complicating recycling processes. 

Many manufacturers of commercial vinyl flooring have recycled content in their flooring, all post-industrial, and the higher recycled volumes tend to come from Asian suppliers, South Korea in particular. There is little talk about post-consumer content. However, most manufacturers agree that the most effective and sustainable solutions will come from various industries working together—flooring, siding, piping, etc.

Flooring manufacturers are having more luck coming up with PVC-free resilient floors, though time will tell if they can match vinyl’s performance attributes. Alternative materials include PET, thermoplastic polyurethane and polyolefins like polypropylene and polyethylene.

One of the most promising PVC-free alternatives is Shaw’s EcoWorx Resilient, a polyolefin construction that has served as the backing of Shaw’s carpet tiles for over a quarter century. With a well-established reclamation mechanism in place, it’s positioned for product circularity.

MANUFACTURER HIGHLIGHTS

INTERFACE

Georgia-based producer of hard and soft surface flooring

Interface, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has played a leadership role in carpet sustainability for over 30 years, and it keeps on adding loftier goals. The firm intends to be entirely carbon negative by 2040, and that’s without offsets, which it eschewed a couple of years ago in favor of spending funds for captured-carbon products and other strategies to inherently lower its products’ carbon burdens.

Its immediate focus is meeting its 2030 science-based targets. For Scope 1, from a baseline of 2019, the 2030 goal is a 50% reduction, and so far it’s at 23%. Scope 2 is now at 31%, also headed for 50%. And Scope 3 includes: purchased goods and services, already down 43% toward a 50% goal; business travel, down 72%, well beyond its 30% reduction target; and employee commuting, down 20% toward a goal of 30%.

However, total GHG emissions actually inched up 3% last year, largely due to calculations for maintenance and cleaning over the life of the product in the optional (and ambitious) Scope 3 category for use of sold products. Absent that, emissions were about flat. 

In early 2025, Interface unveiled its carbon-negative rubber flooring prototype, and the firm is currently working on the logistics of scaling it up, as it did with carpet tile following the Proof Positive prototype unveiled in 2017. It will likely be a couple of years before that product hits the market.

Interface’s rubber currently has the biggest carbon footprint, at 8.2kg CO2e/m2, down 24% since 2019. LVT is currently at 6.8kg CO2e/m2, down 45% since 2019. And carpet leads the way with only 3.1 kg CO2e/m2, down 40%. 

Carpet has the best material profile, with 66% recycled, bio-based or captured carbon materials. Last year, it started integrating a captured carbon material derived from content that would ordinarily be off-gassed—currently, it’s only a small volume. LVT, made in South Korea, features 39% recycled materials, mostly post-industrial. And its rubber flooring includes 10% recycled or bio-based materials.

Interface reports that through its ReEntry program over the last decade, it has collected over 96 million pounds of post-consumer carpet, with 54% recycled internally, 2% recycled by others, 11% reused and 33% sent to waste-to-energy.

SHAW INDUSTRIES

Georgia-headquartered producer of hard and soft surface flooring

Another green leader and innovator is Shaw Industries, which serves the specified commercial market through the Shaw Contract and Patcraft brands. On the commercial side, most of its products are produced in-house. On the residential side, its resilient program is driven by imports. Almost 90% of the products Shaw manufactures are Cradle to Cradle Certified—assessed for material health, clean air and climate protection, product circularity, water and soil stewardship, and social fairness.

The firm has continued to make progress toward its goal of net zero enterprise operations by 2030. It has reduced is operational carbon footprint (Scope 1 and 2) by 62% from its 2010 baseline and reduced its water intensity by 58% from the same baseline, exceeding the 2030 goal of a 50% reduction, so it increased the target to 60%. And it has reduced its energy intensity by 34% since 2010. 

Shaw has also reclaimed and recycled nearly one billion pounds of flooring since 2006. And since 2020, the firm has recycled more than 13 million pounds of synthetic turf into Shaw Sports Turf’s NxtPlay performance pad. And it has expanded the products in its takeback program, which now includes not only all of its EcoWorx backings, but also EcoWorx Resilient and the LVT it makes in its own facility.

According to Candi Hampton, Shaw Industries’ vice president of global sustainability, “We have been able to reduce the carbon footprint of our EcoWorx carpet tile by almost 70% since it was launched, and our EcoWorx Bio has a carbon footprint that is approximately 40% lower than other EcoWorx backing. As a result, carpet tile styles on EcoWorx Bio backing have an average Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 2.35kg CO2 e/m2.”

EcoWorx Resilient, introduced two years ago to the Shaw Contract and Patcraft operations, uses the same polyolefin chemistry as its EcoWorx backings, which have been in the market since 1999. “Since its launch, it has become one of the fastest-growing resilient product offerings in Shaw’s commercial history,” says Hampton. The resilient flooring, which includes 25% recycled content, is fully recyclable back into resilient flooring or into EcoWorx carpet tile through Shaw’s ReTurn reclamation program. It has an embodied carbon footprint of 5.87kg CO2e/m2.

MOHAWK INDUSTRIES

Georgia-headquartered producer of soft and hard surface flooring

Mohawk Industries, the largest flooring producer in the world, exceeded all of its sustainability goals last year, according to Malisa Maynard, the firm’s chief sustainability officer. From a 2010 baseline, the firm achieved a 35% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity, well ahead of its 25% goal, reduced its waste-to-landfill intensity by 45%—its goal was 30%—and reduced water withdrawal intensity by 49%, also with a 30% goal.

“We also launched the world’s first industrial-scale MDF, HDF and laminate recycling plant in Europe, increased renewable energy use with a 43% year-over-year increase in wind and solar power, and saw a 133% year-over-year increase in material recovery through our ReCover carpet recycling program,” says Maynard, adding that ReCover, which recaptured nearly 50 million pounds of end-of-life products, is being expanded across more flooring platforms.

The firm also achieved Asthma & Allergy Friendly certification for its SmartStrand carpets with Pur-Ease, a probiotic treatment that reduces allergens by up to 75% compared to untreated carpet.

“As a global manufacturer operating in 19 countries with diverse product lines ranging from ceramic tile to carpet to laminate to insulation panels, the complexity of our operations is one of our biggest challenges,” says Maynard. “Energy-intensive processes like firing ceramic tiles require high-temperature thermal applications, limiting short-term decarbonization options, though we’ve had great success with recycling waste material and repurposing wastewater in those processes.” She notes that energy efficiency has had the biggest impact on the firm’s environmental footprint, from heat-exchanger replacements, heat recovery systems and spray dryer efficiency upgrades to industrial heat connections that entirely eliminate the use of natural gas. 

Mohawk has now instituted new 2030 goals, including a 20% reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from a 2021 baseline, with a strategy that includes energy efficiency improvements and expansion of the use of renewable energy and biomass. Also, the firm intends to repurpose 85% of its manufacturing waste by 2035. Maynard adds, “For our wood-based products, we’re continuing toward 100% responsible sourcing by 2030, and we’re already very close to achieving that goal.”

Earlier this year, Mohawk acquired Nevada-based Hero Flooring, which makes Hero Rubber using Nike Grind, a recycled material composed of end-of-life footwear and manufacturing scrap.

BENTLEY MILLS

California-based producer of soft surface with sourced LVT

Bentley has long been a sustainability-focused firm, says Ines Ware, director of sustainability, but the firm hasn’t done enough about getting its story out there, something that Ware intends to focus on over the next few years. In the last year alone, the firm has met California’s requirement for 5% post-consumer carpet content with the addition of calcium carbonate captured from recycled content, even though the law doesn’t take effect until January 2028, and it also has started using captured-carbon material.

Last summer, Bentley started using Eco-CC vinyl acetate ethylene emulsions made from raw materials derived from captured carbon as the binder for its carpet tile backings. The product, made by Celanese Corporation, is from carbon dioxide captured from its site in Clear Lake, Texas. By using Eco-CC, Bentley estimates that it will use about 750,000 pounds of captured carbon dioxide annually.

Bentley also recently adjusted its fiber offering with more recycled content—100% in its nylon 6 and 75% in nylon 6,6—reducing the associated global warming potential by 50%, according to Ware.

The firm also offers a sustainable carpet tile backing called LuxFelt. Each roll, which is the equivalent of 600 square yards of carpet tile, contains 35,400 recycled PET water bottles. The firm sells about 1.5 million square yards of LuxFelt-backed carpet tile a year, equating to nearly 89 million recycled bottles.

In terms of Bentley’s science-based targets for reducing its global warming impact, Ware reports that the firm is already 70% toward its 2030 goals of a 42% reduction in Scope 1 and 2, and a 25% reduction in Scope 3 from a 2023 baseline. Its facility in City of Industry, California runs on renewable energy purchased through the grid. It’s also had a small solar array for a long time, which it intends to update.

MANNINGTON

New Jersey-based producer of hard and soft surface flooring

When it comes to sustainability, Mannington’s philosophy is to approach it holistically, focusing across the endeavors of the entire enterprise rather than on one particular element, says Shane Totten, Mannington’s vice president of sustainability. And the firm also approaches sustainability pragmatically. For instance, its internal waste reduction program, which it focused on heavily last year, not only reduces demand for raw materials, but also increases efficiencies and reduces waste stream costs.

Last year, Mannington installed a solar panel array at its Calhoun, Georgia commercial headquarters that will generate up to 60% of the carpet tile facility’s electrical needs. Also, using solar during peak demand has an outsized impact on energy costs. Totten adds, “This installation will cut our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by approximately 600 metric tons per year, the equivalent of taking 140 cars off the road.” The solar array is made in Dalton, Georgia by Qcells, a massive clean energy solutions provider. Mannington has an existing solar array in South Salem, New Jersey.

When it comes to carbon offsets, the firm’s philosophy is that they do nothing in terms of the inherent sustainability of its actual products, but they do make an immediate difference in terms of sustainability at large—stabilizing communities, creating green jobs, slowing the development of natural lands. So, it doesn’t claim the offsets in its annual GHG emissions—a sidebar reports the numbers—but it does consider the offsets an essential element of its corporate environmental responsibility. Mannington’s offsets are all from nature-based carbon sequestration programs.

In addition, the firm is making measurable improvements in energy efficiency at its sites by implementing recommendations from DOE energy audits and ongoing assessments.

Also, 97% of Mannington Commercial’s products are made at its U.S. facilities, and its resins are also sourced domestically. And its reclamation program takes back carpet, resilient and rubber.

AHF PRODUCTS

Pennsylvania-based producer of hard surface flooring

AHF Products, originally formed out of Armstrong’s hardwood division in 2019, has become a hard surface powerhouse in the last few years, first acquiring Armstrong’s resilient assets, then acquiring Tennessee-based Crossville, a leading porcelain producer. The firm has been working to put all of these assets under one sustainability umbrella, managed by Noah Chitty, vice president of sustainability and technical services. Chitty has been with Crossville since 2013. Crossville already had an advanced sustainability program when it was acquired.

Last year, the firm came out with its first sustainability report, and it has now finished EPDs and HPDs for all of its commercial resilient products. Now it is shifting its focus to its densified wood line. 

On the porcelain side, the firm has published a carbon-neutral EPD for Crossville porcelain tile across a range of collections. The most recent addition is Cleve, introduced earlier this year. The verified carbon credits it purchases go beyond making up the offset from cradle to gate, instead covering the carbon footprint across the product’s entire lifecycle—cradle to grave.

AHF’s resilient portfolio includes VCT—in fact, it’s the only domestic producer of VCT. Its profile is more complex than most vinyl products, because it has a very long lifespan, which elevates its sustainability profile, while its intensive maintenance regimen adds to its carbon burden. However, Chitty notes that the firm’s VCT no longer requires waxing, which lowers the profile.

AHF produces the vast majority of its product offering, and with the exception of its LM facility in Cambodia, all of its manufacturing facilities are in the U.S.

TARKETT NORTH AMERICA

Ohio-based producer of hard and soft surface flooring

Tarkett NA, part of France’s Tarkett Group, manufactures carpet, vinyl flooring and rubber flooring domestically, and its linoleum products are made at Tarkett’s facility in Italy. 

According to Jay Henry, Tarkett NA’s senior director of innovation and sustainability, “Over the last year, we’ve continued to focus on our ambitious 2030 goals, which are to increase our recycled content to represent at least 30% of our raw materials, and to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% across our whole value chain (Scopes 1, 2 and 3).”

Henry also notes, “Working with our fiber resin supplier, we increased to 100% recycled resin in our Dynex SD fiber system, which achieved significant reductions in global warming potential (GWP) emissions across our commercial carpet products.”

In addition, Henry reports that the firm’s Ethos carpet tile backing, which is made from reclaiming the polyvinyl butyral film in safety glass (like windshields), is now in a closed-loop process, where the material is also being reclaimed from used carpet tile to turn into backing for new carpet tile.

Globally, across all of Tarkett, 43% of energy consumption comes from renewable sources, Henry adds.

Last year, Tarkett’s North American ReStart takeback and recycling program diverted 1.9 million pounds of used flooring from landfills. And when it comes to vinyl flooring, Henry says, “We’ve established a close partnership with another manufacturer outside our industry to develop an open-loop circular solution for old vinyl flooring, no matter where it was manufactured.”

ENGINEERED FLOORS

Georgia-based producer of hard and soft surface flooring

Engineered Floors serves the commercial market through the J+J Flooring and EF Contract brands, for which it manufactures carpet tile and broadloom, along with a sourced resilient offering, and it also makes a unique hybrid carpet tile out of PET, with close to half the content coming from recycled drink bottles. 

Last year, working with a German partner, the firm introduced a polyurethane-based heterogeneous resilient flooring called Positive Impact that is PVC-free, with over half of its polyurethane content derived from renewable, bio-based materials like canola and castor oil.

According to the firm’s most recent data, it has to date reduced its energy usage by 54%, its water usage by over 85% and its greenhouse gas emissions by 78%—all from a baseline of 2010, just a year after the firm was founded. By implementing continuous improvement systems, the firm will continue to move those goalposts toward even higher objectives. 

MILLIKEN

South Carolina-based producer of soft surface flooring with sourced resilient flooring

Milliken has reduced Scope 1 and 2 absolute greenhouse gas emissions 47% from a 2018 baseline, according to the firm’s 2025 sustainability report, which also cites its continued efforts to reduce Scope 3 emissions through supplier engagement, improved product-level data and circularity initiatives. The firm has invested up to $35 million in recent years on coal elimination, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

While the bulk of Milliken’s flooring revenues come from its carpet production, the firm has been developing its sourced resilient program, which now includes several PVC-free products. The most recent introduction is HybridForm, a 3mm single-polymer system made entirely of PET, specifically engineered with circularity in mind. The product, with up to 50% recycled content, can be recycled into other PET-based products or back into HybridForm through Milliken’s N/xt Life takeback program, which actually accepts flooring from any manufacturer. 

In addition, the firm has expanded its use of renewable energy credits across more than 150 products, while investing in renewable energy and recycled nylon yarn to reduce the embodied carbon of its portfolio. And it offers carbon offsets through its M/pact program.

AQUAFIL

Italy-headquartered producer of nylon 6 face fiber

Aquafil makes Econyl 100% recycled nylon 6 fiber, largely through reclaimed fishing nets as well as from reclaimed carpet fiber, which is depolymerized at its facility in Slovenia and turned into new nylon 6.

The firm is also involved in recycling carpet in the U.S. It had a facility in Phoenix that it shut down last year, instead shifting its focus to a new carpet collection and processing facility in Orange County, California. It has been collecting, sorting and baling product for months, and finally in early June it started processing carpet.

The facility separates the different fiber types. Nylon 6 will be sent to Slovenia and PET, which makes up the bulk of the volume, will go to nonwoven applications like underlayment materials. 

Aquafil has been working with UL and other certifiers to use its yarn with 50% post-consumer content to help mills comply with California’s mandated 5% recycled carpet content, which goes into effect at the beginning of 2028. So far, due to lack of clarity from the state, progress is slow.

NOX

South Korea-headquartered resilient flooring producer with
facilities in Ohio

One firm that has been on the forefront of resilient flooring innovation in the last few years is Nox, a major producer of vinyl flooring, but with an OEM model in the U.S. market. The firm has been focusing its innovation both on a PVC-free resilient alternative and a fundamentally greener vinyl flooring.

Last year, Nox officially launched its Everco+, a multilayered resilient product based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) rather than PVC, and 72% of that TPU content comes from the Nike Grind recycling program. According to Sajal Patel, the firm’s chief marketing officer, the product looks, feels and handles like LVT but has similar elastic properties and scratch recovery to rubber. And it is priced between LVT and rubber.

Nox’s other avenue of innovation is in bio-circular balanced PVC technology, which Nox calls Terra. Patel reports that the technology can be scaled up and implemented across its entire product portfolio. The fossil fuel portion of the PVC derives from discarded cooking oil, processed through a certified mass balance approach. 

The firm’s SetaGrip product, which is looselay installed with microsuction technology, contains 20% bio-circular balanced PVC in its wearlayer. Currently, Terra products can only be made in South Korea. 

FORBO

Switzerland-headquartered producer of resilient flooring and hybrid resilient, with U.S. production

Forbo, the world leader in linoleum flooring production, has been focused on sustainability for longer than most U.S. manufacturers. It launched its first sustainability program in 1988 and created the first publicly produced lifecycle assessment, according to the firm. In terms of emissions reductions for flooring, last year the firm reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 6% and Scope 3 by 3%.

The firm’s Marmoleum sheet is certified carbon negative, cradle to gate, and now so is its polyester-backed Marmoleum tile. Its Marmoleum with the Cinch Loc Seal is still marginally carbon positive.

For its Marmoleum, Forbo has also developed a water-based system called Second Life that enables the application of what is essentially a factory finish to renew the surface and enable the product to serve out its full 30-year service life.

Forbo has another product called Flotex, a nylon 6,6 flocked into an adhesive base on a PVC carrier. Historically, the product has been made in the U.K. and France, but the firm started production at its Pennsylvania campus last April. The goal is to serve the Canadian and U.S. markets. 

GERFLOR

France-headquartered producer of resilient, hardwood and sports flooring, with U.S. production

Gerflor exceeded its interim 2025 Scope 1 and 2 emissions-intensity target of a 45% reduction one year early, and it is in the process of publishing new goals for 2030, including reducing GHG emissions by 30%; optimizing materials by increased bio-based, mineral and recycled content to 75%; and developing circularity to give products a second life by increasing collected volume by 5,000 tons. 

In addition, Gerflor has reduced energy consumption at key facilities by up to 35% through efficiency improvements and process optimization. And for renewable energy, it is expanding its photovoltaic installation across its industrial and logistics sites. Its German manufacturing facility runs on 100% renewable electricity. 

The firm’s Second Life recycling program, which currently operates in about a dozen European countries, enables the collection of both installation offcuts and post-consumer flooring. Looselay accounts for about 40% of Gerflor’s installations, greatly easing both product reclamation and recycling, and the firm is increasing the use of these installation systems.

HMTX

Connecticut-based producer of resilient flooring

According to Arthur Clarke, HMTX’s director of sustainability and impact, the firm’s greenest product is Teknoflor Bio-Polyurethane Flooring, which includes its Naturescapes HPD and Nature’s Plank & Tile HPD collections. The products, which are made without the use of plasticizer, are LBC Red List Free and certified to the latest Cradle to Cradle version and also come with EPDs and Declare labels. Clarke notes that the firm offers a takeback program for the line.

Most of the firm’s products, manufactured both in North America and Asia, are through a small number of long-term manufacturing relationships, some of which have incorporated the use of renewable energy, including solar and steam, into their operations, and they also offer free meals, childcare and onsite lodging for employees.

“The biggest challenge we continue to face in making our operations more sustainable is the ongoing need to shift manufacturing due to the import tariffs on resilient flooring products coming into the United States,” says Clarke. “We call for extensive due diligence on new factory locations and/or partners to ensure minimal environmental impact and that workers at the facilities are being treated fairly and justly.” 

UNIVERSAL FIBERS

Tennessee-headquartered producer of carpet fiber

“Last year, our message centered on low-carbon innovation, Thrive Matter, recycled content, third-party verification and customer partnerships,” says Ranae Anderson, Universal Fibers’ global sustainability leader. “This year, the progression is about making these proof points easier for customers to use in real commercial flooring decisions though clearer documentation, updated LCA and EPD work, certification alignment and a sharper roadmap for recycled content and circularity pathways.”

Thrive Matter is a solution-dyed program for both nylon 6 and 6,6, both of which feature low embodied carbon and high recycled content—across the firm’s entire portfolio, recycled content ranges from 20% to 90%. Anderson notes, “The value of Thrive Matter is not only recycled content. It is the combination of lower embodied carbon, solution-dyed performance, third-party verification, material-health work and the ability to support manufacturers developing lower-impact commercial carpet products.” 

Anderson reports that the firm will use carbon project investments where appropriate, but its priority is to focus first on reducing impacts through materials, manufacturing, and sourcing. In terms of what’s next, Anderson says, “Our direction is clear: move from claims to proof, from proof to specification readiness and from specification readiness to measurable impact across the commercial flooring value chain.”