Shaw Hospitality Group Carpet Donation Highlights TED2014

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the TED conference, some of the world’s most captivating thought leaders gathered in a one-of-kind theater installed in the LEED Platinum Vancouver Convention Centre. During the March’s TED 2014 conference, speakers and attendees enjoyed the beauty of Shaw Hospitality Group’s Layered Luxe carpet, which was designed in collaboration with David Rockwell and Rockwell Group, the theater’s architecture and interior design firm.

The Crease carpet pattern – with its abstract, hatching lines – reflects Rockwell Group’s interest in combining organic forms with linear divisions. The new TED theater is designed to be rapidly assembled and disassembled annually, and its cutting-edge design will have less than 2% waste once all the building components are processed.

“Shaw Hospitality Group is an innovator in manufacturing high quality, sustainable flooring,” said David Rockwell, founder and President of Rockwell Group. “We’re thrilled that Shaw has generously supplied carpet collections, including Layered Luxe, for the new TED theater. The richness and depth of the carpets will contribute to the venue’s dynamic environment for years to come.”

TED – a platform for ideas worth spreading – started in 1984 as a convergence of technology, entertainment and design, and today the conference shares ideas ranging from science and business to global issues in more than 100 languages. More than 50 speakers addressed attendees this year, including notable speakers Bill and Melinda Gates, former Arizona legislator Gabby Giffords, “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert and astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Recognizing that attendees primarily go to TED for inspiring talks and social activity, Rockwell designed the theater with 10 different seating options provided by Steelcase, including benches, lounge seating, chairs and a standing area where attendees can blog without disturbing the audience. All of these seating arrangements intimately surround the stage, which also features Shaw Hospitality Group red carpet.

Befitting the LEED Platinum certification of the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Shaw Hospitality Group carpet is Cradle to Cradle certified by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. The carpet is manufactured with Eco Solution Q nylon, containing 45 percent recycled content, consisting of 20 percent pre-consumer and 25 percent post-consumer recycled content.* Contributing to LEED certification, Layered Luxe is manufactured with safe and healthy ingredients and has a reduced environmental impact across the entire lifecycle of our product.

Shaw Hospitality Group’s carpet will be reused again in future TED theater installations. After the end of its useful life, the carpet will be reclaimed and recycled into new carpet again through Shaw Industries Evergreen Nylon Recycling Facility in Augusta, GA. In the last five years, Shaw Hospitality Group has diverted more than 2 million pounds of post-consumer hotel renovation carpet from U.S. landfills.

*Recycled content is based on allocated nylon fiber from our total nylon fiber production and determined as a percent of a total Eco Solution Q output. Actual recycled content will likely vary.