The Environmental Impact of Carpet
The Carpet Institute and its members believe taking care of the environment throughout the carpet’s life cycle is of fundamental importance to our industry and this has been a major priority for us over the past decade.
To provide a focus for our activities, the Carpet Institute developed an Environmental Policy statement:
‘To encompass environmental guidelines encouraging sustainable outcomes within the industry from manufacture to carpet disposal and a Code of Practice requiring CIAL members to develop and implement environmental management systems for carpet manufacturing; installation, maintenance and disposal.’
To give effect to the policy, CIAL carried out a range of initiatives aimed at increasing our understanding of the issues and promoting good environmental practices in our industry:
- Preparation of an environmental training module for the Carpet Institute’s members.
- Development of the Environmental Certification Scheme (ECS) as an extension of the Australian Carpet Classification Scheme.
- Development of an Environmental Code of Practice for carpet manufacturers to provide a framework for continuous improvement in reducing environment impacts throughout the product life cycle.
- Commissioning the Centre for Design at RMIT to prepare an environmental life cycle study of carpet.
- A life cycle assessment calculator to help our members evaluate and report environmental impacts.
These activities and others are an indication of our collective commitment to ensure carpet has a low impact on the environment.