As the largest commercial carpet manufacturer in California, Bentley Prince Street produces and ships more than four million yards of carpet each year at its 280,000-square-foot facility. At its City of Industry manufacturing plant, Bentley Prince Street is rapidly becoming recognized for its industry-leading sustainability practices, including a philosophy titled "Mission Zero."
According to Anthony Minite, president of Bentley Prince Street, the goal of Mission Zero is to eliminate any negative impact the company may have on the environment by 2020. It is also a way for Bentley Prince Street to influence other manufacturers to take action by demonstrating what the manufacturing sector can – and should – be doing to help the environment.
Through strategies that encompass manufacturing processes, product innovations, and renewable energy use, Bentley Prince Street has produced some impressive numbers regarding industrial sustainability:
- Renewable sources provide 100 percent of electrical energy requirements
- Waste sent to landfills has been reduced by 97 percent since 1994
- Absolute greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 48 percent since 1996
- Water use per unit has been reduced by 52 percent since 1994
- Energy use per unit has been reduced by 40 percent since 1994
- Nitrogen oxide has been reduced by 66 percent since 1996.
Bentley Prince Street is committed to sustainable commerce and innovations to integrate style and function with environmental practices. With the carpet industry's most comprehensive vertical carpet manufacturing facility, the company maintains third-party certification to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 quality management system and the ISO 14001 environmental management system. Additionally, Bentley Prince Street was just accepted as a Superior Energy Performance (SEP) pilot plant within the California Energy Management Demonstration project that is being supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program. As a demonstration site, Bentley Prince Street will test the elements of SEP, a forthcoming American National Standards Institute-accredited energy management certification program currently under development by the U.S. Council for Energy-Efficient Manufacturing. For more information, visit theEnergy Management Demonstrations Web page.
For more information about Bentley Prince Street's energy efficiency efforts, contact the company's sustainability manager, Kim Matsoukas, LEED AP BD+C, at 626-934-2152 or e-mail kimberly.matsoukas@bentleyprincestreet.com.
