Shaw Flooring Going In Mainstream GreenHome

Raleigh, NC, June 19, 2007--Carpet that has been hailed by leaders in sustainability is being installed in the National Homebuilder Mainstream GreenHomeTM, Cherokee Investment Partners environmentally friendly idea home.  The carpet contains recycled content and has the ability to be recycled by Shaw Industries, a Dalton, Ga-based flooring company and the largest carpet manufacturer in the world. Cherokee is the world leader in the sustainable revitalization of environmentally impaired properties and is building the GreenHome to bring green building practices to the forefront of American homebuilding.  

This is a great opportunity for Shaw to be part of the mainstreaming of green homebuilding, said John Bradshaw, Shaws environmental marketing manager.  With Cherokees impact as the nations leading brownfield redeveloper and its commitment to sustainability, the GreenHome is the perfect project to call attention to the fact that green building can be integrated into conventional design and homes that will be appealing to a wide range of homebuyers and homebuilders.

Shaws carpet being installed in the GreenHome embodies the cradle-to-cradle philosophy of William McDonough, global sustainability guru, author and architect and a partner for the GreenHome, providing design and architectural oversight.  The carpet fibers are completely recyclable and can be constantly reused to create new carpeting.  Shaw collects many different categories of waste items for reuse or recycling. In addition, the company diverts more than 300 million pounds of carpet from landfills each year, and the process reduces the amount of raw materials used in the production cycle.  The carpet is a perfect fit for the GreenHome, the goal of which is to educate builders about ways to bring green building techniques and products to the mainstream.

The GreenHome represents a new milestone in mainstream green construction, according to McDonough, chairman of the architecture and community design firm, William McDonough + Partners.  This demonstration home provides the average homebuilder with a model for making a typical American home green.

The home will also incorporate Shaw Endurance II Carpet Cushion.  The cushion is also sustainable, made from 100% recycled synthetic fibers from such sources as carpet, yarn, and fiber. It is needle-punched into weights ranging from 20 to 40 ounces and gauges from 0.235 to 0.350 inches thickness. The carpet cushion is extremely dense and stable.

The Mainstream GreenHome research team selected Shaw because their products are sustainable and still elegant and appealing to mainstream tastes, said Cherokee senior director, Jonathan Philips.  Shaw also has very admirable sustainability practices.

Remarkable in the sense that it looks unremarkable, the GreenHome is the first home of its kind known to be built in a typical suburban neighborhood, in Raleigh, N.C.  The demonstration home provides the average homebuilder with a model for making tomorrows typical American home a green home. 

We are seizing the opportunity to influence the greening of large-scale development and vertical construction, said Tom Darden, CEO of Cherokee.   Starting with the tens of thousands of homes that will be built on the sites we are currently cleaning-up, and the hundreds of thousands in the future, we have launched our green initiative, and we are kicking it off with the Mainstream GreenHome.  Not only are we cleaning and greening hundreds of brownfield sites nationally, but we are exploring innovative ways to integrate more sustainable features into the horizontal and vertical construction of our sites.

Cherokees GreenHome is the first home in the nation known to be built in a typical subdivision under the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines.  In addition, the home will be certified with the Environmental Protection Agency/ US Department of Energy (EPA/DOE) Energy Star Program and the North Carolina Solar Centers Healthy Built Homes state program, among others.

Environmental factors are taken into account in every aspect of the home, from landscaping using edible and/or drought-tolerant plants to rainwater catchment and reuse systems.  The home utilizes a range of technological innovations to minimize impact on the environment without sacrificing comfort.  As a result, the GreenHome aims to:

     Use 50% less fossil fuel than the conventional home

     Recycle or reuse 90% of all organic waste on site

     Consume 50% less water than the conventional home

     Recycle 75% of all construction and demolition waste

     Retain 95% of all storm water on site for reuse

     Create wildlife habitats

     Provide exceptional indoor air quality with 95% of all products having low or zero volatile organic compound

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.