Eden, N.C.—Rockingham County students in North Carolina recently joined Mohawk Group and Karastan to commemorate the installation of an on-campus SmartFlower solar energy unit with a collaborative hands-on art project facilitated by plant employees. On a canvas backdrop using eco-friendly paint, students from Morehead High School and Central Elementary School covered their hands in different colors and imprinted them around a message embodying Mohawk’s commitment to sustainability: “We Believe in Handprints Over Footprints.”
Last fall, Mohawk Group and nonprofit Groundswell teamed up to locate SmartFlower technology on the campus of Eden’s Central Elementary School. Eden is the home of Mohawk’s historic Karastan woven rug and broadloom carpet plant. The system will not only bring clean solar power to the schools and the area, but it also will provide educational opportunities for students and further contribute to Mohawk’s handprinting efforts, which focus on creating products that have a net positive impact across their life cycles.
“Eden students are embracing the positive energy conservation ideas Mohawk and Karastan have presented to the community,” said Megan Hall, human resources manager. “We hope to convey the importance of making a positive contribution to the planet, so their children and grandchildren will have the same resources available to them.”
Mohawk Group has engaged in the partnership with Groundswell to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offset the energy and resources used in manufacturing. The North Carolina SmartFlower installationis part of Mohawk’s handprinting strategy and Living Product Challenge Petal Certification for Pivot Point enhanced resilient tile, Sunweave woven area rug and Sunweave broadloom, the latter two are manufactured in Eden. These Living Products weredesigned to give more back to the environment than they take during their life cycle.
The solar energy project in North Carolina is the second of 10 SmartFlowers to be established across the U.S. as part of a three-year partnership between Mohawk Group and Groundswell.