J+J Flooring Group received the Sustainability Greenie award from the Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI) for its waste diversion practices and its certified landfill free status.

J+J and four other recipients were recognized during the CRBI Green Gala at Barnsley Gardens in Adairsville, Ga. The Green Gala and the awards recognize extraordinary efforts to protect and preserve natural resources in the upper Coosa River basin of northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama in the areas of outdoor recreation, land protection, water conservation, sustainability and innovation. This is the second year of the Greenie Awards and the Green Gala, an event to raise awareness and funds to support advocacy, education and water monitoring projects. 

“Every employee at J+J, as well as our customers, know that conservation has been and continues to be a cornerstone to our business,” said Russ Delozier, J+J Flooring group director of environmental innovation. “We are honored and encouraged by this recognition and look forward to continuing to improve upon our environmental stewardship.”

In 2015, J+J Flooring became the first commercial flooring manufacturer to be certified as a Zero Waste to Landfill manufacturer by an independent certifier of environmental claims.

Last year the company also diverted 4.8 million pounds of waste material from landfill by recycling a total of 3.8 million pounds of miscellaneous materials. More than 700,000 pounds of fiber were recycled back into fiber or yarn for use in the company’s Paradigm Shift carpet collection. Any waste J+J is not able to recycle, repurpose or reuse (about 300,000 pounds in 2015) is sent to Covanta energy-from-waste operator, according to the company.

J+J is also a steward of water and energy conservation. Utilizing its unique water reclamation Aquafinity system, the company recovers approximately 60% of its dye house wastewater. This is the equivalent of recycling 15 to 20 million gallons of dye house wastewater annually. The Aquafinity system also enables the company to achieve significant energy savings by recovering heat that would otherwise be lost in the water not being recycled.

For more information, visit jjflooringgroup.com.