The Floor is Yours Beyond Sustainability

1 GOING BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY p. 3 Message from Desso's director of sustainability p. 4 The three Cradle to Cradle® principles p. 9 Taking the road less travelled p. 10 Cradle to Cradle® is all about transparency p. 17 Desso's Cradle to Cradle® roadmap to 2020 p. 19 Making eco-effective products p. 22 3 USING CRADLE TO CRADLE® TO BOOST INNOVATION p. 35 How Cradle to Cradle® boosts innovation p. 36 DESSO AirMaster® - the carpet that clears the air p. 38 Textile floor coverings and volatile organic compounds p. 41 Our environmental standards and certifications p. 42 4 ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO...

Message from Desso’s director of sustainability In 2008, Desso began its transformational journey towards becoming a 100% Cradle to Cradle® company by 2020. From the start, we have set ourselves the goal of implementing ‘sustainability with substance’ and have always aimed to be open and transparent in our reporting. In the coming year we will publish our first ‘Corporate Sustainability Report’, which is made in accordance with the internationally recognised guidelines set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). We want to provide our stakeholders with the most transparent information possible...

Transforming our business “No man is an island, entire of itself.” These words from the 17th century English poet John Donne remain as relevant today as they were then, though we would include women. As a European manufacturing business we know that everything we do has an effect on wider society around us and we want to make sure that our impact is a positive one. We committed the company to become fully Cradle to Cradle® by 2020. Instead of a linear economic model where products are made and then disposed of, the Cradle to Cradle® model is circular. That is why we decided to transform our entire...

The three Cradle to Cradle® principles So, we embarked on the very tough process of analysing and re-designing our products after entering into a partnership agreement with the Hamburg-based Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA), run by Professor Dr. Michael Braungart, the co-founder of the Cradle to Cradle® design philosophy. This made Desso the first carpet manufacturer in EMEA to adopt Cradle to Cradle®. Ever since this point, we have assessed the functional purpose of our products by applying the three Cradle to Cradle® principles to the product and the design process. Waste...

Taking the road less travelled Many people have asked us why we took the giant step to go from sustainability to Cradle to Cradle®. To answer this question, we have to look at the main differences between sustainability and Cradle to Cradle®. Often, sustainability starts by evaluating the impact of a material or an activity on the environment, and then tries to minimise those impacts. But in following this approach, you could be optimising the wrong things – trying to do less of a bad thing. Cradle to Cradle® starts by defining the ‘perfect’ product based on user requirements and functionality...

Renewable electricity Renewable electricity co2 emissions co2 emissions Renewable energy Renewable energy water recycling water recycling packaging recycling packaging recycling textile recycling textile recycling water ozonisation energy water ozonisation Renewable electricity Eco-efficiency Desso has been making a difference with eco-efficiency for years. We have never lost sight of the fact that our goal was to minimise our impact on the environment. Listed below are some examples of what we do in the area of eco-efficiency: • 32% reduction in energy consumption per carpet tile produced from...

Eco-effectiveness Renewable electricity co2 emissions As part of our Cradle to Cradle® strategy, we want to go a step further with eco-effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, this approach is all about creating products that are designed to have a positive impact on the environment and use renewable energy in all stages of the cycle. These are some of the steps we have already taken: 50% CO2 reduction between 2007-2011 for the total company. This due to the use of increasing amounts of renewable electricity (hydropower and energy from biomass) year on year. The amount of renewable energy used at...

Five categories are assessed: health 1 Product / material re-utilisation 2 Product / material 3 4 Renewable energy Each category covers the following aspects: There are four levels of Cradle to Cradle® certification: A product can attain one of four levels, to reflect continuous improvement: Basic Silver Gold Platinum • Passive / positive list • Supplier declaration • ABC-X categorisation • Defined cycle (technical / biological) • Design for dissassembly • Take back and recycling • Re-utilisation score • Closing the loop Certification applies Desso’s current to a specific product: status: Silver*...

Roadmap to 2020 for commercial carpet tiles supply chain Develop carpet Started product Establish first recycling facility selected carpet tiles Further expan- sion of take back consumer content Gold certification consumer content Further expansion consumer content Further expansion consumer content Further expansion Actively contribute to the Cradle to Cradle® Community in the Netherlands and worldwide. Development of innovative products for a healthy environment and material reutilisation. Product / material Product / material manufacturing facility Social fairness & corporate ethics Positively...

Making eco-effective products All companies should produce goods that are healthy for people and the environment. Unfortunately, this is not the reality in many cases. At Desso, our commitment to Cradle to Cradle® design means that we will lead by example and aim to only use positively defined 6) materials in all of our products by 2020. To achieve this we rigorously assess our materials in partnership with EPEA. All the materials in our products are assessed by the Cradle to Cradle® design protocol which enables us to design eco-effective products. They are placed in one of four categories (ABC-X...