Page 326 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Consumer Pr oducts Industries 301

• Life-cycle assessment. P&G routinely uses LCA to support
product and process improvement. In the early 1990s, P&G
was one of the first companies to apply LCA, comparing the
environmental impacts of disposable diapers versus laundered
cloth diapers. The controversy continues to this day, although
a recent British government report supported P&G’s conclu-
sions that the life-cycle impacts are roughly comparable [6].
• Eco-efficiency in production. P&G’s program to “design
manufacturing waste out” has saved the company over
$500 million as well as 2 million metric tons of waste. Today,
over 95% of materials that enter P&G plants leave as fin-
ished product, and over half of the remaining materials are
recycled. In 2007 P&G set a five-year goal to reduce CO emis-
2
sions, energy and water consumption, and disposed waste per
unit of production by an additional 10%, contributing to a
40% reduction for the decade.

Mohawk Industries: Naturally Stain-Resistant Carpet
Mohawk Industries achieved a win-win solution with its Smart-
strand™ line of residential carpeting, combining high performance
with environmental responsibility. This was accomplished through
®
a partnership with DuPont, which developed Sorona fiber made
from triexta, a renewably sourced polymer. Mohawk Industries’ CEO
Jeffrey S. Lorberbaum said, “This product will do things that others
cannot, making it the biggest fiber innovation we have seen in 20
years. Our confidence in this product is evidenced by Mohawk’s first-
ever Limited Lifetime Warranty offer for stain resistance. Rarely do
consumers get a luxuriously soft carpet with these benefits.”
The new technology boasts durability, crush resistance, resilience,
and permanent, natural stain resistance that will not wash or wear off
like topical stain treatments are prone to do. The stain resistance is an
inherent, built-in attribute of the fiber and provides new levels of pro-
tection, allowing difficult stains, such as mustard or red wine, to be
removed simply with warm water and a mild detergent. The triexta
polymer fiber is made from a 1,3- propanediol (PDO),which was orig-
inally produced from petrochemical feedstock. However, DuPont
found a way to produce PDO through a fermentation process that
uses corn sugar, an agricultural feedstock. Based on life-cycle assess-
ment, DuPont has shown that production of renewably sourced
®
Sorona fiber requires 30% less energy and produces 55% less CO
2
emissions than an equal amount of nylon fiber.
Mohawk has also introduced a variety of other environmentally
responsible innovations [7]. For example, Mohawk converts over
3 billion bottles annually—25% of all the bottles collected in North
America—into 160 million pounds of recycled carpet fiber. In addi-