City Of Industry, CA - Bentley Prince Street's California mill has become the first carpet manufacturing facility in the country to receive a silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating SystemTM for Existing Buildings (LEED®-EB). The mill is also the first manufacturing facility of any kind to be certified under LEED-EB v2.0.
"Certifying our building under LEED-EB is an important part of our sustainability mission on a number of levels," says Anthony Minite, company president. "Not only is it in line with our mission to eliminate any negative impact our company may have on the environment by 2020, it's also a way we can influence others to take action. We believe we have a responsibility to demonstrate that the perceptions of what types of facilities can-and should-be LEED certified need to be expanded to the manufacturing sector. We hope our LEED-EB certification will encourage other manufacturers to follow our lead and attempt to do the same."
As the largest commercial carpet manufacturer in California, Bentley Prince Street produces and ships more than 7 million yards of carpet each year at its 280,000-square- foot facility. With the industry's most comprehensive vertical carpet manufacturing facility, it can closely coordinate product development and manufacturing, and exercise quality control over all aspects of production to ensure sustainable manufacturing.
In the certification, Bentley Prince Street received Innovation credits for exceptional performance above LEED requirements in a number of areas, including:
- An Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy with 95 percent of purchases meeting sustainability criteria and 100 percent being IAQ compliant
- An on-site Waste Diversion program that recycles office and manufacturing waste, with 95 percent of all waste, and 100 percent of construction waste, diverted from landfills
- Comprehensive Sustainability Education Programs for employees, customers, suppliers and community partners
- Detailed Emission Reporting methods as a charter member of the California Climate Action Registry where it has been certifying greenhouse gas emissions since 2002
Other key facility environmental highlights of the facility include:
- 100 percent of Bentley Prince Street's electrical energy requirements are renewable
- The company utilizes one of the first privately funded photo voltaic solar arrays in the industry to provide a portion of electrical energy for manufacturing processes
- Waste sent to landfills has been reduced by 95 percent
- Absolute GHG emissions have been reduced by 75 percent
- Water intake has been reduced by 71 percent
- Overall energy use has been reduced by 57 percent
About LEED
The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Maximizing operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts, the LEED-EB certification considers water efficiency, energy efficiency, whole-building cleaning and maintenance, indoor air quality, recycling programs and facilities, exterior maintenance programs and system upgrades to meet green building energy, water, IAQ and lighting performance standards.
About Bentley Prince Street
Defining style, color, quality and service for more than 25 years, Bentley Prince Street manufactures and markets award-winning broadloom and carpet tile products for commercial interiors across the globe. Bentley Prince Street is committed to sustainable commerce and innovations to integrate style and function with environmental practices through its Mission ZeroTM goal of eliminating any negative impact it has on the environment by the year 2020. With the industry's most comprehensive vertical carpet manufacturing facility, the company maintains third-party certification to the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. Based on Los Angeles County, CA, Bentley Prince Street is a subsidiary of Interface Inc., a global provider of floor coverings. For more information, visit www.bentleyprincestreet.com.
