Florence,AL – August 8, 2008 – Designers, architects, and anyone specifying a commercial floor knows the importance of the FloorScore rating. Those same people also know that making meaningful strides in Green manufacturing, product reclamation, and sustainability requires a steadfast commitment. Centiva has achieved the FloorScore rating on all of its flooring products and expanded its commitment to its Green initiatives. In addition to announcing its achievement of FloorScore, the company confirmed that it will spend over 20% of its operating profit on its Green initiatives in 2008.

Centiva was notified of its successful completion of the FloorScore testing process by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) in July. "The rigorous testing processes prescribed by SCS were intriguing for Centiva," said Garth Gaffney, Centiva’s Technical Director."We were eager to have a third party certify the excellent indoor air quality afforded by our products." 

"It was important for us to have all of our products FloorScore certified", said Gaffney. "For us offering a limited group or special Green flooring product was not an option. Our customers need to be able to specify any of our floors and have the confidence provided by the FloorScore certification", All Centiva floors are FloorScore certified.
 
It is important to keep in mind that indoor air quality and the related FloorScore certification is just one aspect of Green manufacturing. Centiva’s President,Thomas Trissl, has committed over 20% of the company’s operating income for spending on the company’s Green initiatives."Centiva approaches environmentally responsible manufacturing in a holistic manner. It’s really the only way to do what must be done," said Trissl. Financially supporting these efforts is part of that process. Fortunately, the extensive research that Centiva is doing into its processes is paying dividends with efficiency and the elimination of waste.Those savings have helped to fund the Green initiatives of Centiva.

Centiva is supporting its Green initiatives with senior management involvement as well. Rhonda Ross, the Company’s Executive Vice President, has taken on those efforts full time."We visit our stakeholders up and down stream from our production process," said Ross."Being Green and getting Greener is about educating and getting educated. For Centiva it’s about life long learning, for the company and our partners. Our approach isnot a committee or program; it’s systemic throughout the company."

The Company’s Green initiatives have infused every aspect of Centiva’s operations. Energy usage, product development, production processes, and packaging have all been examined. "Change is the only constant at Centiva," said Trissl."When we started Centiva, I never dreamed we would have an engineer on our staff whose sole charge is to look at every aspect of our operations and review our product all the way to the molecular level to ensure we are stretching to achieve a truly Green company." At this point efforts such as these are less company initiative and more about company culture.

Centiva designs all of its luxury vinyl tile flooring products. The Company manufactures its Contour and Victory series in the US and imports its Event series. Centiva’s award winning products are used in some of the most demanding environments with regard to both style and durability. Its clients are leaders in retail, healthcare, education, hospitality, corporate, and other commercial areas.

The FloorScore program was created by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI) in partnership with Scientific Certification Systems (SCS.) FloorScore certifies that flooring products have been tested and comply with indoor air quality emission requirements adopted in California. A product bearing the FloorScore seal has been independently certified to comply with the volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions criteria of the California Section 01350 program. These flooring products qualify for use in high performance schools and office buildings.