Desso, a leading carpet company, said it has reached a major new milestone by becoming the first carpet tile manufacturer in the world to achieve Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Gold level certification for its new carpet tile collection that was launched on global markets last month.

Cradle to Cradle is a set of principles which enables manufacturers to make goods designed for more than one product life cycle in an ever-moving non-toxic closed loop, increasingly powered by renewable energy.

Desso said the Gold certification is the culmination of seven years of hard work and effort, inspired by the goal of transitioning to the circular economy, based on C2C principles. 

The new collection comes standard with an EcoBase backing that contains upcycled re-engineered calcium carbonate (chalk) from local drinking water companies, which is 100 per cent recyclable in Desso’s own production process.

In addition, the collection contains Econyl, a 100 per cent regenerated nylon made from recovered waste materials including post-consumer yarn waste from Desso’s Refinity plant.

The products in the Gold collection thus have 100 per cent positively defined materials, 100 per cent Econyl, on average 80 per cent recyclable  materials, on average 52 per cent recycled content, very low VOCs (volatile organics compounds), and contribute to Leed (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) v4  points.

Next to this collection, 93 per cent of Desso’s commercial carpet tile range is Cradle to Cradle certified, at either Bronze or Silver level, depending on the backing type. 

“Through the vision and hard work of our people and stakeholders, we are delighted to have reached this important new milestone in our circular economy journey”, said Roland Jonkhoff, managing director, Desso and vice president, Carpet EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Tarkett Group, of which Desso is a part.

“Alongside this, the innovations that are required on our path to becoming a C2C company, continue to contribute to our commercial success. This demonstrates to us and others that a business strategy coupled to strong CSR goals does underpin commercial success.”