Tarkett, a worldwide leader of innovative flooring and sports surface solutions offering a wide range of products including vinyl, linoleum, carpet, rubber, wood, laminate, synthetic turf and athletic tracks, has launched a new thorough - yet easy-to-use - Carbon Calculator to offer customers, across all sectors, transparency on the carbon footprint of Tarkett’s flooring collections, to help them make informed purchasing decisions.

Using third party verified information, available on the EPD (Environmental Product Declaration), this calculator has accuracy and in-depth data to calculate the CO₂ impact across the full product life cycle. The calculator includes carbon emissions for each of the product life cycle stages: material extraction, transportation, the energy consumed in the manufacturing process, the use and end-of life stages.

In addition, the calculator allows to display the carbon footprint reduction one might achieve on a project by comparing sending post-use waste to closed-loop recycling instead of landfill or incineration – thus establishing a clear connection between circular economy and the fight against climate change. Indeed, measuring the carbon footprint is a very important means to understand human impact on global warming. The building and construction industry can make a major difference as they represent 39 % of global GHG emissions (production, transport and incineration) and 60-70 % of total waste.

ReStart®, Tarkett’s take-back and recycling programme, provides for flooring waste to be collected and recycled back into flooring, which saves virgin raw material and avoids emissions from incineration and landfill.