Environmentally Preferable Products
Antron® nylon: Making Headway
Well over a decade ago, INVISTA began aggressively moving toward sustainable growth. Through these efforts, along with continued production of long-lasting, performance-driven products, Antron® nylon has been awarded third party certification as an Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP). Environmentally Preferable Products are products that have a lesser or reduced effect on the environment when compared to competitive products that serve the same purpose.
In addition to receiving EPP Certification, INVISTA was awarded third party certification on a variety of important environmental claims.
In Europe an Environmental Profile ENP 337 has been awarded by BRE Certification Ltd in UK, for all Antron® fibres and yarns produced at the Oestringen manufacturing facility in Germany. This demonstrated that the environmental impact of using Antron ® is significantly lower than the European fibre industry benchmark. In fact on the major parameter of energy usage for fibre manufacturing Antron® showed 30% lower consumption vs the European benchmark.
BRE Environmental Profiles provide a universal measurement system for building products using also the ISO 14000 methodology, a similar process to EPP above. This helps clients, designers, and specifiers to identify products which will best fulfil a sustainability brief. For more information visit www.brecertification.co.uk.
What’s “Environmentally Preferable”?
The words “Environmentally Preferable” were first outlined by the President in September 1998 by Executive Order 13101, which directs Executive agencies to identify and purchase Environmentally Preferable Products. Since that time, reputable third party organizations, including Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) have certified hundreds of environmental product claims. But Antron® carpet fibre is one of the first manufactured products to receive third party certification as an Environmentally Preferable Product.
In the USA EPP certification was awarded by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) through their Environmentally Preferable Certification program. It is important to note that the program is built upon rigorous recognized industry standards (including the EPA Final Guidance and ISO 14000 methodology) and consists of 5 criteria a product must meet - each corresponding to a stage of a product's life cycle.
