Norwalk, Conn.—Metroflor has shared a video series of the panel Rochelle Routman, the company’s chief sustainability officer, moderated at the Sustainatopia May 2017 conference in San Francisco. Titled “The Voice of New China,” the discussion features panelists Simon Xia, Metroflor’s Shanghai general manager and factory sustainability coordinator, and Jin Song, general manager of Elegant Plastics, a primary factory of Metroflor’s LVT floors. The panel covered a wide array of subjects regarding the manufacturing environment in China including sustainability and transparency, energy and water efficiencies and the factory workers’ experience, as well as an audience question-and-answer session.
The video series begins with the first of a five-part video series posted on Metroflor’s social media channels and YouTube, introducing the company’s Chinese colleagues/panelists and discussing the current relationship Metroflor has with its factory partners. In part two, Xia and Song present the environmental improvements at the factory, which enhance the sustainability of Metroflor’s products. Part three discusses product ingredient transparency and product safety, spotlighting Metroflor’s participation in the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Declare label program and featuring the company’s Aspecta Ten, the first rigid core multilayer LVT floor to have a Declare label worldwide, according to Metroflor. Part four focuses on the treatment of the factory workers and the transparency provided to customers who visit and tour Metroflor’s factories. Part five concludes with questions from the audience.
“It was history in the making: the first time a Chinese factory manager, a Chinese product manager and a U.S.-based sustainability officer were speaking in the same place to demonstrate how transparency and sustainability can, and should, unfold in the global powerhouse of manufacturing that is China,” Routman said. “Unlike most manufacturers doing business in China who hide that fact, Metroflor is leading the way by being completely transparent about our relationship with our Chinese partners: revealing where and how our products are made, what is in them and how the workers are treated. We were proud to come together with them to have this important discussion.”