Shaw cuts energy use 50% since 2010

The world’s biggest carpet company has cut in half the amount of energy it uses and greenhouse gases it produces by recycling more than 90% of its products.

Shaw Industries Group Inc. , the Dalton, Georgia-based floorcovering provider, released its 2018 sustainability report Wednesday showing continued reductions in its energy use, wastes and greenhouse emissions. Shaw said it has recycled almost 1 billion pounds of carpet since 2006, recycled more than 24 billion bottles at Clear Path Recycling since 2009 and invested more than $1.5 billion in new and existing facilities in the U.S. over the past five years.

In the past year, the company began operating a Combined Heat & Power plant at its Columbia, South Carolina, fiber production facility, which reduces the plant’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 26,000 metric tons — equal to 5,500 cars on the road. Shaw also joined the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment as part of the momentous Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

“The definition of sustainability is broadening to include potential impacts on our human experiences, not only the importance of ingredients that go into products, but also the effects of sound, moisture and other design elements,” said Susan Farris, vice president sustainability and corporate communications at Shaw Industries. “We perpetually take the next step forward, across every element of our sustainability strategy — beginning with the human element.”

Farris said last year Shaw engaged Framework LLC, a sustainability consulting firm, to update its materiality assessment to ensure sustainability priorities and goals align with current market expectations.