CFL Flooring issues EPDs for Rigid Core Products

Adairsville, GA 9th December 2022 – In order to continuously improve the sustainability of our products, CFL Flooring has undergone a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to assess the environmental impact of a product throughout its lifecycle, from extraction of rawmaterials through its manufacturing up to its end-of-life enabling the Company to issue EDPs (Environmental Product Declarations) for its Rigid Core Floors.

 

Such analysis helps set a baseline and identify areas of potential improvement:

  •  Selecting materials that respect health and the environment and with lower greenhouse gas emissions throughout its life cycle;
  •  Promoting optimized use of resources in our production
  •  Setting up manufacturing closer to the market (e.g. is our facility in Calhoun, USA);
  •  Creating new sustainable technologies, that allow us to reduce the use of materials or improve our transportation-related GHG emissions.

 

“Sustainability within CFL is one of the utmost important objectives throughout our innovation efforts,” said Thomas Baert, President & Co-Founder of CFL. “Measuring progress and making it transparent is key to push that progress forward.”

 

“Generating the LCA data allows us to also develop Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) – transparent and objective reports that communicate how a product impacts the environment across its entire life cycle.” Says Konstantin Mishagin, CFL Director ofProduct Management and Sustainability. “We see a rapidly growing global demand for quantitative environmental information, especially in the building materials market segment, in particular because it enables our clients to earn credits for sustainable buildinglabels, such as LEED, BREEAM, DGNB and others.”

CFL Flooring completes materiality assessment in preparation of first publicly available sustainability report

Shanghai, 15th November 2022 – CFL Flooring has completed the Materiality Assessment in a preparation for its first, publicly available Sustainability Report.

The materiality assessment helps identify the material ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) issues and challenges for CFL – from sustainability and climate change to social responsibility and diversity, impact of these issues and challenges on company’s business and stakeholders’ expectations, advancing CFL’s long-term sustainability strategy.

We evaluate against the ISO26000:2010 CSR Guidelines, GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. We then compare this range of potential material topics against the corporate priorities set by the Board and our executive team, evaluating the risks and opportunities associated with each topic and their importance to our business’ bottom line.

“This is our first materiality assessment, and it will help us align our sustainability roadmap with our stakeholders”, Thomas Baert.

Barron Frith joins RFCI board of Directors

Barron Frith, President of CFL Flooring North America, was elected as Secretary/Treasurer for the Resilient Floor Covering Institute during the RFCI Fall Meeting at the Resort on Pelican Hill on Tuesday. Barron brings with him a breadth of expertise and experience that we’re convinced will be of huge value for the category.

 

More in the news:

https://www.floortrendsmag.com/articles/109903-cfl-president-joins-rfci-board-of-directors

https://www.fcnews.net/2022/10/barron-frith-joins-rfci/

 

CFL Flooring conducted complete Life Cycle Assessment of its rigid core products

Shanghai, 30th September 2022 – In order to continuously improve the sustainability of our products, CFL Flooring has conducted its first Life Cycle Assessment for all its rigid core products produced in their headquarter facility.

“We see Life Cycle Analysis as a critical tool to assess the environmental impact of a product using standardized methods (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044), tracing the impact throughout its lifecycle—from extraction of raw materials through its manufacturing up to its end-of-life, including transportation, use, and maintenance”, says Konstantin Mishagin, CFL Director of Product Management and Sustainability.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life, thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities. LCA will help CFL identify key areas for potential improvement such as:

  • Selecting materials that have lower GHG emissions and that do not contribute to resource scarcity, for example abundant, recycled or renewable.
  • Promoting optimized use of resources in our production, reducing the use of energy and water, and waste generation.
  • Creating new sustainable technologies that allow us to reduce the use of materials or improve our transportation-related GHG emissions, for example, our Be-Lite technology or the brand-new digital printing product line coming in 2023.

Generating LCA data further enables CFL Flooring to also develop Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)—transparent and objective reports that communicate how a product impacts the environment across its entire life cycle.

“We see a rapidly growing global demand for quantitative environmental information, especially in the building materials market segment, in particular because it enables our clients to earn credits for sustainable building labels such as LEED, BREEAM®, DGNB and others”, says Thomas Baert, President of CFL Flooring.

CFL Receives 2022 GreenStep Practice/Process Honoree Award

The CFL team was thrilled to be recognized with the 2022 GreenStep Practice/Process Honoree award for our patented Be-Lite technology at the Dalton Golf & Country Club yesterday! Floor Covering Weekly’s GreenStep Sustainability Awards honor those in the industry making great sustainable strides among their initiatives, products, people and practices.

Be-Lite is a thermoforming technology for SPC panels that, depending on the panel’s thickness, uses up to 20% less raw materials during the panel core manufacturing process. The resulting lighter SPC panels maintain optimum performance reducing a panel’s total manufacturing raw material costs as well as decreasing transport costs significantly.
CFL has entered into a technology partnership with i4F Patents & Technologies to extend the positive impacts of this more sustainable SPC panel production to the broader flooring industry.

Vinyl Sustainability Council Welcomes CFL Flooring as Newest Member

WASHINGTON, DC, August 17th, 2022 – The Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), a self-funded business council advancing sustainability in the vinyl industry, has welcomed CFL Flooring as the newest member of the council. VSC membership is reserved for organizations taking a leadership role to advance sustainability throughout the vinyl industry.

“We’re pleased to add CFL Flooring to our list of more than 55 members demonstrating a commitment to sustainability efforts in their business practices,” said Jay Thomas, VSC executive director. “Collaborating with CFL Flooring in these efforts helps advance the impact of sustainable flooring products and continue to add value for consumers.”

CFL Flooring is the largest manufacturer of stone-plastic composite (SPC), and other hybrid flooring products worldwide. Recognized globally as an innovator, CFL Flooring is committed to developing, manufacturing, and marketing sustainable, value-added flooring products. CFL employs over 4,500 associates around the world, including the United States, China, Europe, and Vietnam. The company balances years of technical flooring expertise with the common vision of of leading flooring innovation. CFL’s extensive patent portfolio made up of hundreds of patents, granted and filed, is a core element in fulfilling this vision of.

“Sustainability within CFL is one of the utmost important objectives throughout our innovation efforts,” says Thomas Baert, Co-Founder and President of CFL. “At CFL Flooring we see collaboration as the only sustainable way to create a real circular economy and drive positive change,”

“VSC is an excellent collaboration platform for companies with strong commitment to environmental, social, and governance. We look forward to enhancing our sustainability efforts with like-minded companies to develop industry-wide post-consumer recycling programs and reducing our environmental impact” said Konstantin Mishagin, Director of Product and Sustainability Management at CFL Flooring.

CFL recently launched a pilot take-back program in Asia to focus on taking back cutoffs from product installation and looks to expand the program into key markets in the United States and Europe.

About the Vinyl Sustainability Council
The Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), founded in 2016 in partnership with the Vinyl Institute, is a collaborative platform for companies, organizations, and other industry stakeholders to come together to advance the U.S. vinyl industry’s contribution to sustainable development. Through its +Vantage Vinyl® verification program, the VSC aims to drive continuous improvement across all three aspects of sustainability – environmental, social and economic performance. For more information, please visit https://vantagevinyl.com/

CFL appoints new Director of Global Product & Sustainability Management – Konstantin Mishagin

Shanghai, 11th April 2022 – CFL Flooring (Creative Flooring Solutions), a pioneer in manufacturing value-added flooring products, today announced that the appointment of Konstantin Mishagin as the Director of Global Product & Sustainability Management.
In his new position, Konstantin will focus on the further implementation of CFL’s sustainable development strategy across all divisions of the Company, as well as the wider climate strategy aimed at achieving carbon neutrality.

“I’m thrilled to be taking on this new role. Sustainability has become a key focus for us as a company, and I am proud to be at the helm of driving CFL’s new ESG initiatives moving forward” says Konstantin.

Konstantin has been with CFL since 2016 holding leadership roles in product management, compliance and marketing. Prior to joining CFL, Konstantin worked several years with a leading sustainability company Waste2Wear, a pioneer in recycling materials.

Thomas Baert, President of CFL stated “Very confident that Konstantin will bring our company to the next level, his professionalism is widely known and appreciated by all his colleagues.”

CFL Flooring (Creative Flooring Solutions) is the largest manufacturer of SPC and other hybrid flooring products worldwide. The company is recognized globally as an innovator – committed to developing, manufacturing, and marketing sustainable, value-added flooring products. CFL employs over 4500 associates around the world including in the USA, China, Europe, and Vietnam, leveraging years of technical flooring expertise with the common vision of being the leader in flooring innovation. CFL’s extensive patent portfolio made up of hundreds of patents, granted and filed, is a core element in fulfilling this vision, thus protecting the value offered to its valued customers.

For more information, contact:
Marketing@cflflooring.com

CFL Leads with Patents Granted for the Be-Lite SPC Extrusion Technology

Hong Kong, February 18th, 2022 – CFL Flooring (Creative Flooring Solutions) announced it has been granted a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the Be-Lite SPC Extrusion Technology used on its acoustic multilayer flooring products and other SPC based products. With similar patents in Europe and in other countries, this stronger protection further reinforces CFL’s position as a leading flooring innovator, providing a wide range of value-added flooring products.

Be-Lite is an embossing technology applied on the bottom surface of a rigid core flooring panel that makes the product lighter without creating any extra production offcuts. The embossing can be of any design or shape all the while providing acoustical reduction.
The reduced weight on the products is more cost-effective, resulting in lower shipping costs and higher returns on investments. With the significantly lower need for production materials, production, handling, transport, and distribution is faster and more efficient. This patented technology also helps improve the products’ acoustic performance and overall stability. Most importantly, the creation of Be-Lite contributes to CFL’s commitment to helping make the industry more sustainable.

“Sustainability within CFL is one of the utmost important objectives throughout our innovation efforts,” says Thomas Baert, Owner, and President of CFL. In the future, he adds that “this revolutionary technology will soon be applied to most SPC and other extruded multilayer flooring products making our industry more sustainable. Thanks to Be-Lite we can make our products lighter, reducing our carbon footprint in the supply chain.”

The Be-Lite SPC Extrusion Technology is commercialized in certain Firmfit and Novocore lines in the US, Europe, and other countries around the world.

CFL Obtains Important U.S. Patents on Revolutionary Acoustic Multilayer Floors

Calhoun, GA, USA, January 27th, 2022 – CFL Flooring (Creative Flooring Solutions), a pioneer in manufacturing value-added flooring products, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted patents related to its acoustic multilayer flooring products, further strengthening the Company’s intellectual property portfolio. CFL also holds similar patents in Europe and in other countries around the world.

The granted patents cover the structure of CFL’s acoustic flooring products that offer a solution to one of the bigger challenges in flooring, sound. These products are designed to significantly reduce generated, reflected, or transmitted impact sounds, leading to a performance up to 6x more sound absorbing than standard 5mm SPC with 1mm cork underlay.

The products concerned are commercialized as NovoCore Q in North America and Firmfit Silent in Europe.

“As a leading flooring innovator in the industry we strive to improve the acoustic performance of the products on the market. It is with great pride that we have now found solutions for customer needs for improved sound reducing flooring products” said Thomas Baert, Owner and President of CFL. “This innovation confirms our drive to bring value-added products to the market away from standard commoditized products. Our industry benefits when healthy margins can be obtained throughout the whole supply chain and we are excited to bring these first to market proprietary products to our loyal customer base,” he added.

CFL Flooring reinforces its long-term innovation and sustainability strategy with acquisition of Hymmen JUPITER digital printing line

  • CFL Flooring signs new i4F license for Digital Printing
  • CFL Flooring’s next-generation rigid core lines to use Hymmen Digital Printing

HAMONT, BELGIUM – i4F®, a group of companies providing patents and technologies to the flooring industry, today announced that CFL Flooring has acquired a Hymmen JUPITER digital printing line for its US facility and, has signed a new digital printing technologies license agreement with i4F. This reinforces CFL’s long term digital printing strategy as well as the company’s commitment to innovation “firsts” whilst reducing its carbon footprint. CFL’s next-generation rigid core produces will be produced using Hymmen’s JUPITER JPT-C print-to-board line.

With some 4,500 employees, CFL Flooring is a global leader and innovator in rigid core manufacturing as well as other hybrid vinyl floor covering solutions. Over the last eighteen months, the company has heavily invested in its state-of-the-art production facility in Calhoun, Georgia (USA), that is now fully operational. The new JUPITER digital printing line will be located in Calhoun and be used to produce CFL’s next-generation rigid core lines.

In addition to the multiple design and production advantages, CFL’s decision to buy the digital printing line was driven by its goal to reduce its carbon footprint as well as to become more sustainable. Digital printing eliminates the need for certain elements, including décor films and plastic wear layers, thus reducing the total amount of PVC use, reducing plastic waste, as well as reducing the impact of supply chain strains linked to production.


Decors and structures of Hymmen´s DLE plus collection 2022

Designed to enable 24/7 industrial production, Hymmen’s JUPITER JPT-C print-to-board lines deliver intelligent and highly precise register accuracy. This ensures the highest levels of color stability and print quality output while maintaining printing speeds of 25-50 meters per minute.

i4F licenses the world’s most advanced digital printing technologies and offers exclusive access to all Hymmen digital printing technologies in the flooring sector. Digital printing will play a crucial role in the future of new material flooring as it enables unlimited design and embossing-in-register flexibility and can be applied to a wide range of materials. This facilitates faster response times to market demands and trends while reducing material waste.

“CFL has long been committed to its vision of leading flooring innovation,” said Thomas Baert, President and co-founder of CFL Flooring. I believe we were the first manufacturer to push rigid core in a massive way. Our aim is to continue to be top of mind with our partners when they think of first to market innovations and second-to-none marketing and customer support. Digital printing is the next logical step.”