Underscoring its ongoing commitment to environmental education and eco-innovation, Tarkett, a global leader in innovative and sustainable flooring and sports surface solutions, recently hosted its second annual Sustainability Summit in Cleveland, Ohio. The company’s global chief executive officer, Michel Giannuzzi shared Tarkett’s “Four P’s” strategy to help build a sustainable world through purpose, people, planet, and profit.
Tarkett also invited Sudeep Motupalli Rao, Ph.D., from the U.S. Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency (EPEA) to explain the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) framework and the circular economy challenges. Following Sudeep Motupalli, Andrew Winston, author and founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, shared his vision of “The Big Pivot: Doing Business in a Hotter, Scarcer, More Open World,”
More than 30 architects, designers, distributors, contractors, and end-users from leading companies throughout North America were in attendance. The summit provided an interactive forum for architects and designers who are committed to sustainable design and building to connect with one another, while gaining a greater understanding of industry-critical topics like material transparency and optimization, circular economy, and recycling.
“Having the opportunity to share our sustainable vision with North American architects and designers is vital to our journey in improving performance standards throughout the industry,” said Giannuzzi. “Tarkett strives to communicate in a transparent manner with solutions that answer and anticipate not only architect’s and designer’s needs but also users’ expectations—combining people’s well-being, environmental protection, performance, and aestheticism.”
Working in tandem with the scientific institute EPEA, Tarkett has focused on developing and manufacturing products that address the circular economy through people, planet, and profit, and widely deploying the C2C principles within the company. EPEA values are based on intelligent, aesthetic and eco-effective design and are dedicated to optimizing products within the C2C framework. Interactive roundtable discussions throughout the seminar addressed not only Tarkett and EPEA framework, but also the evolution of materials transparency and chemical regulations as well as logistical challenges with integrating sustainability into business and recycling.
Giannuzzi and Diane Martel, vice president of environmental planning and strategy for Tarkett North America, presented the company’s annual ReStart Awards, which honor the architect, designer, installer, distributor and/or end user whose project has successfully diverted the largest quantity of flooring from landfills using the company’s ReStart Recycling and Reclamation Program.
