June 8, 2015—Russ Delozier, Director of Sustainability with J+J Flooring Group, and Kemp Harr discuss J+J milestone achievement of being certified as a zero waste to landfill manufacturer. Listen to the interview to hear Russ talk about the collective effort that requires the focus of every employee and what the company does with its floor sweeping and other unrecyclable waste.
June 5, 2015—Royce Epstein, Director of Design Segment for The Mohawk Group, and Kemp Harr discuss her background and new role at Mohawk. Listen to the interview to hear about Royce's early apprenticeship with Michael Graves and her last role of product development in collaboration with Suzanne Tick. Royce joined Mohawk three weeks ago and will lead commercial design as well as serve as their face to the A&D community.
June 3, 2015—Kermit Baker, the Harvard Economist that tracks the Billing Index with the American Institute of Architecture and also tracks housing as part of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, and Kemp Harr discuss the outlook for Commercial Construction despite the recent drop in the AIA billings index and the outlook for housing both short term and long term. Listen to the interview for more details.
June 2, 2015—Susan McCullough, Senior VP responsible for NeoCon with the Merchandise Mart, and Kemp Harr discuss the highlights and outlook for NeoCon 2015. NeoCon is the largest Commercial Interiors show in North American and it is scheduled for June 15 to 17 in Chicago. Listen to the interview to hear more details on the anticipated traffic and key speakers.
June 1, 2015—Giulio Bonazzi, CEO of Aquafil, and Kemp Harr discuss Aquafil USA's sweet 16 celebration held last Friday in Cartersville, Georgia. Listen to the interview to hear more about Aquafil's history and plans for the future her in the U.S.
May 29, 2015—Santo Torcivia, an Economist with Market Insights. LLC, and Kemp Harr discuss the increasing amount of flooring sold in the U.S. that is manufactured outside of the U.S. Listen to the interview for more specifics. This trend might have peaked in 2014 based on a number of factors mentioned during the interview.
May 22, 2015—Michel Vermette and Bill Storey, President of Mohawk Commercial and SVP of Karastan Residential (respectively), and Kemp Harr discuss yesterday's news that Mohawk is spending $8 million on new weaving capacity at its Karastan plant in Eden, North Carolina. Listen to the interview to hear more details about what sounds like the first phase of a collaborative effort between Mohawk's commercial, residential and area rug business in this historic U.S. mill town. This move will bring 100 jobs to the area.
May 20, 2015—Frank Endrenyi, a polymer consultant and adviser to the CARE board, and Kemp Harr discuss Frank's work in finding economically feasible outlets for post consumer PET carpet which is now the leading type of carpet sold in the U.S. residential market. Unlike nylon, PET has limited value once it has served its useful life as a floorcovering. Listen to the interview to hear where CARE stands on finding viable solutions.
May 19, 2015—Ruth Simon McRae, a textile designer and columnist with Floor Focus, and Kemp Harr discuss Ruth's observations and take-aways from last week's American Institute of Architecture (AIA) conference held in Atlanta. Listen to the interview to hear more details.
May 15, 2015—David Crowe, Chief Economist for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), and Kemp Harr discuss his forecast for the housing market in the near term. He expects single family housing to grow 9% this year to 704,000 new units, but is calling for a 39% growth in 2016. Listen to the interview to find out why.