Dalton, Ga.—Soft and hard floor covering company Mohawk Industries has been recognized by Newsweek magazine as one of the greenest companies in the United States .

Newsweek listed Mohawk in 227th place – among 500 – in its “Green Rankings 2009.” Within the consumer products category, it ranked 14th out of 29.

For more than a year, the news publication worked with environmental researchers KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com to rank the 500 largest U.S. companies based on their environmental performance, policies, and reputation.

Mohawk was the only flooring company to make the Newsweek list. Mohawk GreenWorks is the umbrella of the company's environmental initiatives.

“This is a remarkable honor for Mohawk Industries and a milestone in our Mohawk GreenWorks efforts,” said Jeff Lorberbaum, ceo. “This is acknowledgement of the work and resources we have invested in Mohawk GreenWorks, and it sets a standard by which we can measure the next steps in our program.”

Companies were scored using three key criteria: Environmental Impact Score, a standardized quantitative performance measurement taking more than 700 variables into account to captures the total cost of all environmental impacts of a corporation's global operations; Green Policies Score, an analytical assessment of a company's environmental policies and performance, which considered best-in-class policies, programs and initiatives, as well as regulatory infractions, lawsuits and community impacts, among other indicators; and Reputation Score, based on an opinion survey of corporate social responsibility professionals, academics and other environmental experts.

In addition to its overall ranking, Mohawk ranked 45th in reputation among the Top 500.

“We're particularly pleased with our reputation ranking, since it comes from other organizations and from individuals who have special expertise in sustainability,” said Lorberbaum.