Solon, Ohio—Tarkett has promoted Roxane Spears to vice president of sustainability for Tarkett North America. In this newly created position, Spears leads the organization’s sustainability initiatives across research and development, material optimization and corporate communications.
Spear joined the company in 2004 to align with Tarkett’s strong commitment to sustainability. While serving multiple sales and sales management roles for more than 15 years, she focused on educating her peers and customers on a holistic approach to sustainability. Her work will expand the sustainability conversation beyond the building so that it includes the wellness of the people in the space and the health of our planet.
“I am passionate in my belief that we all must work together toward a common goal of healthier building materials and radical transparency,” Spears said. “I look at sustainability as the story for all of us. We all need to ask what we can do as a company, and also, what I can do personally. Small steps grow to large actions. I am looking forward to leading Tarkett in future innovation.”
The role is an important one for Tarkett, an organization that has established goals and commitments to eco-design for several decades. In the company’s 2018 Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility (CSR) Report, Tarkett shared several sustainability performance highlights achieved by the global organization, which include:
- Material assessment and transparency: 98% of Tarkett’s raw materials—representing more than 3,000 materials—are third-party assessed for their impact on people’s health and the environment based on Cradle to Cradle criteria.
- Indoor air quality: 97% of Tarkett’s flooring has low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions, i.e. 10 to 100 times lower than the strictest standards.
- Healthy indoor spaces: By end 2018, 100% of the company’s vinyl production sites in Europe, North America, Serbia and China use non-phthalate plasticizer technology in flooring.
- Preservation of resources: 70% of Tarkett’s raw materials do not contribute to resource scarcity, being abundant in nature, rapidly renewable or recycled.
- Recycled resources: 134,000 tons of recycled materials are used as raw materials, representing 10% of the volume of purchased raw materials.
- Flooring take back: 102,000 tons of flooring were collected from 2010 to 2018 through ReStart.
- Climate change: Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 8.5% in 2018 vs. 2010. Twenty-seven percent of the company’s energy consumption comes from renewable sources, such as biomass, geothermal, solar or purchased ‘green’ electricity.
- Supporting communities: Through Tarkett Cares, the company encourages all employees to spend up to two days per year of their work time on charity initiatives. In 2018, 1,300 employees were involved in 170 initiatives.
- Developing talents: Through Tarkett Academy, over 23,000 professionals or students were trained in flooring installation techniques from 2012 to 2018.
For more information, visit: tarkettna.com.