Atlanta—Mohawk Industries is among the top five Georgia companies for sustainability practices in the Southeast—and number one in its industry
—according to rankings from the 2011 Southeastern Corporate Sustainability Rankings. The companies reviewed were selected from the largest 3,000 U.S. equities from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition to Mohawk, other Georgia companies recognized for exceptional performance included Coca-Cola, NCR, and UPS.
The annual rankings, founded by Mark Callaway Investments and GreenBusiness Works, evaluate companies on a variety of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, using information from publicly available sources to further encourage company transparency. To be part of the ranking, companies must be publicly traded on a major exchange, headquartered in the Southeast, and have a minimum market capitalization of $100 Million as of June 30, 2010.
Mohawk was scored in the 2nd quintile of last year’s report, but moved up dramatically based on information provided in its Annual Sustainability Report, which uses globally accepted GRI G3 protocols. Mohawk is the first company in the flooring industry to have every step of its sustainability programs verified by a third party resource.
“We are very proud to see how well Mohawk has done in the rankings,” said Stephanie Armistead, general manager of GreenBusiness Works. “They began their journey early, and we are thrilled to see they have accelerated the pace in the last few years. Mohawk discovered early what many companies have yet to learn—that people are caring more and more about having healthy products in their homes and their workplace. Also, as Mohawk teaches us—saving resources saves dollars and in light of the recent economic landscape, what company doesn’t want to conserve?”
“Mohawk is honored to be in the company of world class brands that are dedicated to making the Southeast a model for sustainable business practices,” said Bill Kilbride, Mohawk’s chief sustainability officer. “We’re especially honored to be ranked first in our industry, considering the other sustainability leaders in the flooring business. And we are particularly proud of the work done by our associates to meet our challenging corporate sustainability goals, which would have been impossible to achieve without exceptional work from every one of our employees.”
The Southeast Corporate Sustainability Rankings were created to:
- Help southeastern companies know where they stand in ESG so they can
maintain and improve their sustainability policies and practices - Help customers needing services or products from corporations to
understand the environmental priorities and actions of those companies - Serve as an information tool to help companies align their values with their investment
- Help educate and move the Southeast forward in the use of efficient, renewable energy sources
- Help establish a legacy of corporate and social responsibility in the Southeast
- Help companies raise awareness of, and take action toward, reducing their carbon footprint.
Mohawk Industries has scores of sustainability initiatives in operation. Mohawk is a prolific recycler in the flooring industry, diverting over 3 billion pounds of material from landfills annually and recycling 20% of all the plastic bottles reclaimed in North America each year. Mohawk recycles more than one billion pounds of wood annually into the core boards for laminate flooring. More than 500 Mohawk products contain some type of recycled material.
Mohawk’s flooring division has made great strides in energy reduction, using practices including conservation, alternative energy sources like biofuels and adjusting plant operating hours to use off-peak power for better utility efficiency. In support of the Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now LEADER initiative, Mohawk has pledged to reduce its overall energy intensity by an aggressive 25% as compared to 2009 levels over the next 10 years. Mohawk has also reduced water usage by more than 50% since 2005, and is committed to a further reduction of 25% from 2008 levels.
Mohawk’s environmental efforts have won the company recognition from The U.S. General Services Administration, Wal-Mart Stores, Newsweek’s Green Rankings, the Society of Plastics Engineers, and The Partnership for Sustainable Georgia.
To learn more, and to obtain a copy of Mohawk’s sustainability annual report, visit mohawksustainability.com.