NEWH - Spring 2018 - 36

SUSTAINABILITY | POINT OF VIEW

Durkan: Sustainable Solutions in Custom Design
By George Bandy, Jr., Vice President of Sustainablity, Mohawk Group

D

urkan specializes in custom flooring
design for distinctive, cutting-edge
hospitality projects, interweaving product,
design, community, and sustainability into
its custom design solutions.
As part of Mohawk Group, Durkan is
a single-source total flooring provider
that includes carpet, carpet tile, area
rugs, enhanced resilient tile (ERT),
hardwood, laminate, and all flooring
products. Durkan's hospitality product
design team is based in Mohawk's Light
Lab Design Center, a 33,000-square-foot
midcentury modern building in Dalton,
Georgia that features 360-degree views
of natural vistas. In May 2016, Light Lab
became the first structure in Georgia,
and the first restoration project in the
entire southeastern U.S., to receive Living
Building Challenge Petal Certification
from the International Living Future
Institute (ILFI). Light Lab is where
Durkan's designers consider not only how
products are made with state-of-the-art
manufacturing or how they look with
innovative and forward-thinking pattern
and texture, but how different platforms
and products impact our world and our
lives.
Lichen is a new modular plank carpet
system available to Durkan through
Mohawk Group. Merging leading concepts in biophilic design
and sustainability, Lichen is the first flooring product to achieve

ILFI's Living Product Challenge Petal
Certification. The creation and specifying
of Lichen has a net-positive impact for
people and the environment, through
innovations in materials, manufacturing,
and community involvement. It is truly
sustainable, leaving a handprint rather
than a footprint. Just as lichens play a
regenerative role in our ecosystem, the
Lichen collection gives more resources
back to the environment than it uses
during its entire lifecycle.
Also merging sustainability and design
is Definity, Durkan's sustainable alternative
to Axminster carpeting. Definity is 100
percent recyclable and the only carpet
that provides sculpturing technology
capable of producing the highest definition
of texture, pattern, and color ever achieved
in hospitality carpet. Definity is made in
the U.S., which means shorter lead times
and a significantly smaller environmental
footprint.
When it comes time to replace flooring,
Durkan also offers carpet reclamation for
hospitality. Its ReCover program utilizes
a North American network of carpet
recyclers to divert old soft-surface flooring
from the landfill, with Durkan handling all
project logistics. Recycling carpet helps
to "recover" a valuable resource for the
future of the planet.
As Mohawk Group's hospitality brand, Durkan is leading the
segment in product transparency, where all products can be made
available Red List free. In addition,
Durkan currently has nine Declare
"ingredient" labels covering all
available product platforms. These
efforts ultimately help contribute
to healthier hospitality spaces.

Durkan's Living Product Challenge
Petal Certified modular plank carpet
option, Lichen (above); and the Light
Lab Design Center in Dalton, Georgia.
36 www.newh.org
http://www.newh.org
NEWH - Spring 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NEWH - Spring 2018
