Invista's Comforel Earns EPP Certification from SCS

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 3/9/2010 12:00:00 AM

At the New York Market —

Fiber and polymer integrated producer Invista has just added another “green” feather in its sustainability cap.

Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), which provides independent certification of environmental, sustainability, food quality and food purity claims, has given Invista a provisional Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) certification for its Comforel-brand bath rug fibers.

For Invista, this marks its second such certification, on the heels of the company's Stainmaster Carpet EPP certification in November 2009. Invista produces the Comforel fiber at its Kingston, Ontario plant, where it also makes its some of its Stainmaster fiber for the residential broadloom market.

Invista, based in Kennesaw, Ga., has been working on earning this certification for many months, Jorge Vizcaya, business manager of rug fibers for Invista, told HTT.

To earn the EPP certification, SCS conducts a Life Cycle Assessment, which must demonstrate a significantly reduced environmental footprint in a majority of impact categories, such as energy, greenhouse emissions, water emissions and others, but without significant trade-offs compared to a historic baseline.

Vizcaya said Invista has many sustainable practices in place that contributed to its certification. These include: energy efficiency; responsible manufacturing and waste elimination; and its proprietary Macro Bulk Technology, which increases the bulk of a yarn bundle but at lower weights, resulting in the 13% rate reduction of material used by manufacturers in producing Comforel bath rugs.

Vizcaya added that Comforel met via other EPP criteria based the product's durability, soft touch and color fastness.

SCS has over the past 20 years developed internationally recognized standards and certification programs aimed at spurring the highest level of environmental improvements, social accountability and product performance.