All around the world, people and organizations are celebrating Earth Day in unique ways. In the past, we have celebrated Earth Day by announcing the yearly and cumulative goals for our recycling programs. While “making less waste” continues to be at the heart of our sustainability efforts, this year, we’re proud to celebrate a new milestone in our sustainability journey, and that is the announcement of our carbon reduction goals and plans and the launch of our first carbon neutral porcelain tile products, Civilization and Native Metal.

BEING A LEADER IN SUSTAINABILITY TAKES VISION AND DILIGENCE

With evermore concern regarding climate change, global warming potential, and the impact of carbon on our environment, we’ve been taking a closer look at our energy usage and carbon impact. We completed our first energy assessment in 2014 and, by 2019, had achieved a 10% reduction in energy usage. That was just a starting point, and we have now announced two goals for the future:

1. Achieve an additional 10% reduction in our tile’s global warming potential by 2024.
2. Achieve a 30% carbon reduction from the 2014 baseline by 2030.

Learn more about our carbon reduction goals and plans here.

CARBON NEUTRAL PORCELAIN TILE COLLECTIONS & OUR CRADLE TO GRAVE APPROACH TO CARBON NEUTRALITY

Native Metal and Civilization are carbon neutral through measuring embodied carbon (via an Environmental Product Declaration) and committing to reducing carbon across the entire product lifecycle. With our “cradle to grave” approach, we go further than many other manufacturers who practice “cradle to site” or “cradle to gate” carbon reduction. Made entirely in the USA, these porcelain tile collections are our first carbon-neutral products but are definitely not our last. Learn more about our carbon neutral tile here.

GREEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR SIGNATURE COLOR

While we are immensely proud of our new carbon neutral products and our goals for a more sustainable future, from the start of our business in Crossville, Tennessee, our founders recognized that a product from the earth should have minimal impact on the earth. Our ongoing efforts in sustainability support the belief that the built environment should foster well-being in our lives at home, at work, and beyond. Here’s an overview of our other sustainability initiatives.

Waste Management

Making less waste, and finding innovative ways to use byproduct and second-grade materials, are at the heart of Crossville’s sustainability efforts.

• Filtering and recirculating wastewater through our plants to reduce water consumption
• Recycling all cardboard in manufacturing facilities
• Recycling fired scrap and re-consumer waste* back into first-grade products

You can view our list of pre-consumer recycled content by series and color here.

*Thanks to a partnership established with sanitary wares manufacturer TOTO USA® in 2011, we’re able to recycle pre-consumer porcelain toilets and other cast-off products that would normally be discarded.

TRANSPARENCY

EPD, HPD & Declare Labels

Integrity and transparency are everything at Crossville. We offer extensive third-party certifications and verifications for our sustainable actions. We make it simple to specify sustainable materials that support human health and safety standards. Click here to access EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations), Declare Labels*, and  HPDs (Health Product Declaration.

Sustainability Report

Crossville was the first tile manufacturer to have a third-party certified sustainability report. As we embark on our 4th Sustainability Report, to be published this year, we look forward to sharing more on our progress towards creating the least environmental impact on the porcelain tile industry.

View our sustainability report here.

*Declare Labels ensure there are no red list ingredients in our products. Red list ingredients are those considered hazardous by the International Living Future Institute.

PARTNERSHIP

When it comes to environmental impact, Crossville is part of various sustainability programs that highlight our endeavors, from rating systems to healthy performance.

Sustainability Certifications

• Green Squared
• Living Product Challenge
• Collaborative for High Performing Schools

Rating Systems

1. LEED V4 & V4.1
2. Living Building Challenge Contributing
3. MindClick
4. Well Contributing
5. Design for Health

Libraries

• Mindful Materials
• Design for Health
• Ecomedes
• Material Bank

Visit our Sustainability page for more information on the certifications, rating systems, and libraries.

While our sustainability intentions began on day one, we didn’t stop there. We

designed and remodeled our plants to reduce the impact that manufacturing has on our natural resources. Our product development teams strive to do the same. Our core value of partnership has us working diligently with our supply chain to help them improve beyond the walls of our factories and service locations.

Click over to our sustainability page for updated information about our sustainability initiatives and easy access to certifications, rating systems, and libraries.