Nature offers us myriad shades of green to consider, from artichoke to fern to mint. For companies that want to be sustainable, there are just as many shades of green to explore. Mohawk Group, a $9.5 billion commercial-flooring company, has tried on lots of them.
“We’ve been through many phases in sustainability,” says Jackie Dettmar, a 30-year Mohawk employee currently serving as vice president of design and product development. “Recycled content. Cradle to cradle. Reducing one’s environmental footprint,” she enumerates. “That was the bandwagon, and we jumped on. It wasn’t wrong, but our decisions were driven by external factors. After a while, we decided we wanted something more holistic, something that felt like ours.”