Green Builder Media president Ron Jones talks with Mohawk's Denise Silbert at VISION House Las Vegas about the company's sustainable flooring lines, including SmartStrand, PureTech, and SolidTech. They discuss how bio-based and PVC-free materials deliver longevity and performance without sacrificing design.
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Ron Jones: Hi, everybody. I'm Ron Jones, president of Green Builder Media. We're in Las Vegas at the vision House Las Vegas in conjunction with Beazer Homes. We actually have a sequence of three homes, a deconstructed home, a metal house that, is quite exciting. And then the vision house itself. Mohawk certainly needs no introduction.
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Denise Silbert: Yeah. We have, huge business, and we're the global leader in flooring. Really? Just from a mohawk industry standpoint. And then we service multiple businesses. We have a residential business. We have a kind of, Main Street commercial, and then we have a full commercial group, and then we have our built our multi-family segment as well. So we we really serve as a, kind of the entire market.
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Denise Silbert: And then we have some sister companies like Dow Tile that also serves, serves those channels.
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Ron Jones: Exactly. So, as a builder, as a green builder, I have to ask you, inputs on, let's say, transportation and carbon and, other topics of the day, you're sourcing for, energy in your production. And so forth like that. That's all got to be on the table. That.
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Denise Silbert: Yeah, absolutely. We're looking at however, we can get more efficient while still offering significant value to our customers. And the consumers. So obviously sustainability is something that's been identified as important to the company, consumers, if they are selling directly to consumers like we do through our residential business and, and dealers that service that market, it's not a top purchase driver, but it's still a key part of our overall offering.
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Ron Jones: And their understanding is growing. Yeah. And so that question does come up more often than than it previously had have. You know, people have better information, better access to information. And they're concerned because of, climate issues and environmental issues. And, everybody wants a safe, clean, happy environment and comfort for their family. Well, let's talk a little bit about the product itself and and why you think it's important to have top of the line products in the floor, for sure.
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Denise Silbert: So in the the vision home and the other two formats, we have smart strand carpet. So carpet is is still a key part of the home, but usually more in the bedrooms with open concepts. And that line has been sustainable in some way from the beginning when it launched in 2005, it has been made from renewable plant based ingredients.
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Denise Silbert: So it's a corn, product byproduct. So we have kind of a sustainability from 2005 on. And one of the key things that you can expect from Smart Strand is durability and clean ability. And so the idea of it performing every day in the home for the homeowners in their lifestyles, if they have kids, they have pets, they have a lot of activity.
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Denise Silbert: People coming and going, it's going to endure. And one of the key things with sustainable products is lasting, right? So they don't have to be replaced frequently. That makes it more sustainable. So we have bio based ingredients and a long lasting product. And I think over time there was a perception, particularly by consumers, that, sustainable products were lesser quality, particularly if they were made from recycled materials.
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Denise Silbert: And that's not the case. With our products, they're, they're, you know, they're built for longevity and performance.
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Ron Jones: And the durability is not, not in question at all. So, tell us about the different product lines.
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Denise Silbert: Yes. So we have pure tech, which is a new hybrid PVC free. It's made from renewable ingredients. And then we've also with our partnership with plastic Bank and incorporated some post-consumer recycled content in there. And so it's a really different, type of product, PVC free, being one of the really key, innovations that we were focused on and all of the things that you kind of would expect consumers to be looking for from a lifestyle standpoint, pure tech lives up to all of that.
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Denise Silbert: And then we have solid tech, another line in the homes, which is, our resilient product offering. And so that's just got a huge assortment of products in the offering, and it's got, some durability, but also some ease of install things that really are important to our customer base.
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Ron Jones: Well, and as basic as, traction and also, that variety and the wonderful blending then with the esthetics, those are things that are not just automatic things. You have to work at that.
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Denise Silbert: So, like.
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Ron Jones: How many, different flooring offerings would you say that you have?
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Denise Silbert: I would I hesitate to even try to guess. We have hundreds of of offerings. And so we kind of service everything we have, laminate products, we have wood, engineered wood products. We have, resilient products. We have, some tile as well. We have performance accessories, which are a great companion to the flooring products that actually create nice transitions between the soft surfaces with carpet and the hard surfaces, too.
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Denise Silbert: And that underlayment to protect from subfloor moisture. All of the things we basically have, everything that our customers could possibly need and more. In our offering.
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Ron Jones: It's really.
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Denise Silbert: Important.
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Ron Jones: Because when you're trying to assemble a completed product as intricate as a home, you don't want to have to source things at multiple places. You want a turnkey result, and you and the other thing is just the reliability and knowing that that product, is just as good as the rest of the suite of products that you're installing.
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Ron Jones: And so they they are designed and built together, to work together.
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Denise Silbert: Yes, absolutely. Especially when you talk about the performance accessories line that we have that matches to the flooring. And so you have the coordination, which you might not always be able to get, you know, you might have to, paint or stain or something like that for trims. If you can't find,
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Ron Jones: And that's why you would see a, a marble threshold between two different kinds of flooring.
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Denise Silbert: Right? Yeah.
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Ron Jones: So they might have been lovely at that time, but we're looking for a more.
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Denise Silbert: More cohesive and seamless. Yeah. So since esthetics are so important to the homeowner, they're going to come in to a model home like this and kind of makes them like it's an emotional decision and a lot of ways, design and esthetics. And then and sustainability and it becomes even more emotional. I feel good about where you're going to be living and the impact it will have on your home.
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Ron Jones: It's such a personal statement. I mean, there's there's a comfort to the product.
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Denise Silbert: Yeah, yeah. So this has a touch pad, which will add a little bit of comfort underfoot. Also helps with acoustics. Yeah. That's another, key benefit. Yeah.
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Ron Jones: I hadn't really, clued in on that, but that's exactly right. When you have hard surfaces, get a lot of bounce with that sound. Yeah. What's the what would you like to tell us that we haven't talked about?
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Denise Silbert: I'm really excited to be able to participate in this project. And, you know, collaborate with one of our key customers, Beazer. It was really exciting to be able to partner with Green Builder Media as well as Beazer Homes and really bring a whole new level of, I guess living to a community. It's really nice to be a part of something.
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Denise Silbert: So breakthrough.