Our EPD-led Decarbonisation Journey.
At GH Commercial, we recognise that climate change is the most critical environmental issue of our time. Its far-reaching impacts touch every facet of life and demand decisive, global, and collaborative action - particularly from the building sector, where construction materials are under growing scrutiny for their role in greenhouse gas emissions.
“At around 16%, building materials have a significant contribution to Australia’s built environment emissions,” states Jamuna Sivathasan, Environmental and Sustainability Manager at GH Commercial, citing the recent Green Building Council and thinkstep-anz publication.
With such a significant contribution to national emissions, improving material efficiency has become a key lever for immediate impact. “While the scale of transformation needed can feel daunting,” Jamuna acknowledges, “GH Commercial is embracing the challenge.”
Measuring What Matters
Our commitment to reducing emissions and our environmental footprint begins with a fundamental principle: accurate measurement.
“At GH Commercial, our climate-positive journey is guided by a robust emissions reduction roadmap,” Jamuna explains. “Measurement forms the backbone of our strategy - it's how we identify opportunities, track improvements and ensure accountability.”
We believe that “one accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.” This philosophy underpins our approach to managing and ultimately minimising carbon impacts across the entire lifecycle of our products.
EPDs: Tools for Transparency and Transformation
A cornerstone of this approach is our first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) - a transparent, third-party verified document that communicates the environmental impacts of our products, including embodied carbon.
To develop the EPD, we partnered with a German institute specialising in sustainable buildings, the Gemeinschaft Umweltfreundlicher Terpsichorean e.V (GUT). Why GUT? Jamuna reinforces that accurate carbon footprint measurement is essential for an effective emission reduction strategy. “That’s why we have chosen the experts in carbon accounting and LCA assessment team to start our first EPD journey,” she enthuses.
While EPDs support informed product specification by architects and designers, they also serve a deeper purpose for us: enabling self-assessment and continuous improvement, especially in tackling complex Scope 3 emissions. “Through the EPD process, we’ve gained critical insights into resource consumption and emissions across every stage of the product lifecycle,” Jamuna explains.
Carbon Reduction in Action
The insights gained from our EPD and Lifecycle Assessment guide our focus on addressing Scope 3 emissions and the embodied carbon in our products. This commitment extends to actively reducing carbon emissions across all facets of our operations, with a significant focus on Scope 2 emissions through the adoption of renewable energy.
“The carbon emission assessment we conducted under our SBTi commitment and the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard for Organisations, which is a voluntary standard providing best-practice guidance on how to measure, reduce, offset, validate and report emissions that occur as a result an organisation’s operations, highlighted that electricity usage is the highest emission contributor (Scope 2) to our operational carbon,” Jamuna explains.
“Since 2020, we’ve significantly invested in renewable power across our manufacturing facilities and today all of our Australian manufacturing sites and half of our New Zealand manufacturing facilities have significant solar installations, generating approximately 30% of those sites’ total electricity requirements on average – and more than 40% in summer months.”
A Group-Wide Commitment
As part of the Mohawk Group, we benefit from the collective strength of a global network. The Mohawk Group’s “Planet Council,” established in 2021, brings together specialists across regions to align environmental strategies and drive shared innovation.
“Through sub-groups like the Climate-Positive Future team, we’ve collaborated on life cycle analysis methodologies and shared best practice in emission reduction,” Jamuna says. This collaboration has already borne fruit: GH Commercial has achieved a 34% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions since 2020 and is currently implementing a unified reporting platform to improve ESG performance tracking across the group.
Driving Change Beyond Our Industry
GH Commercial’s commitment doesn’t stop at internal change. We actively collaborate with external partners, such as RMIT University, where our joint research explores how waste carpet fibres can be used to reduce concrete cracking and improve durability - extending building lifespans and reducing carbon footprints.
We are also members of the UK Sustainable Flooring Alliance, connecting us to global insights and innovations in recycling and circularity.
Future Focused Goals
Looking ahead, we’re intensifying our efforts. Having already achieved the 34% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions through operational efficiency improvements, electrification projects and large-scale solar installations outlined by Jamuna, GH Commercial’s future goals are even more impactful.
“We are committed to contributing to our Group’s science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of a 42% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 12.3% reduction of Scope 3 by 2030 compared to the baseline year 2020,” she enthuses.
This ambition is further reinforced by our aspiration to design, manufacture and supply flooring products with closed-loop circularity that contributes a minimal carbon footprint to the built environment. Jamuna explains that it involves a focused approach on utilising more low-carbon raw materials – such as recycled and bio-based options – investing in innovative low-carbon manufacturing technologies, minimising raw material usage and improving end-of-life recyclability through efficient product design.
“Raw materials contribute significant emissions to the final product,” she explains. “It’s crucial to choose low-carbon raw materials that can immediately reduce the embodied carbon of our products.”
EPD: The full circle
Returning to the essential role of EPDs in driving carbon reduction through more conscious specification, Jamuna emphasises what industry professionals should prioritise when consulting these documents. “EPDs are developed against internationally adopted standards, providing transparent, third-party verified data on a product’s environmental impact throughout its lifecycle,” she explains. “However, because of differences in manufacturing location and EPD program operators, understanding LCA assessment data, relevant standards, and both Product Category Rules (PCRs) and sub-PCRs is crucial for accurate comparison between EPDs of similar products, enabling informed decision-making.”
For architects, designers and specifiers aiming for decarbonisation, Jamuna highlights the significance of Global Warming Potential (GWP). “GWP is the most important factor to consider when choosing building materials to meet decarbonisation goals, as it reflects a material’s greenhouse gas emissions throughout its life cycle. And as many industry professionals already know, lower GWP products contribute less to climate change and, hence, are a more sustainable choice.”
She also encourages industry professionals to consider the product stage emissions (A1-A3) alongside transportation emissions (A4) to understand a product’s holistic carbon footprint. “For instance, by eliminating transport-related emissions, a locally manufactured flooring product reduces the embodied carbon of the building when compared to an imported flooring product of the same type, with the same product stage embodied carbon,” she says.
Grounded by rigorous measurement and an actionable carbon-positive roadmap, augmented by the Mohawk Group’s environmental ethos and amplified by keen, cross-industry innovation, GH Commercial is not only treading lightly – we are charting a bold course towards a decarbonised flooring future. More than an industry declaration, our recent EPD serves as a powerful sustainability compass, guiding our ambitious journey to minimise embodied carbon and empowering a generation of architects, designers and specifiers to do the same.
“This isn’t just about reducing our impact,” Jamuna summarises. “It’s about actively fostering a built environment where every step contributes to a healthier planet, one responsibly manufactured and thoughtfully specified flooring solution at a time.”
