CRI Initiates the Community Advisory Panel

Contact: CRI Communications Department, 706.428.2103

November 5, 2001, DALTON, GA Recently, the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) instituted a Community Advisory Panel for the purpose of providing a vehicle of mutual understanding about sustainability and carpet industry efforts toward sustainability. Werner Braun, president of CRI stated, "we especially want to obtain input from this diverse panel about the community's perspective of the carpet industry's journey toward sustainability and how we can work together." All participants shared their thoughts about mutual ways we can guarantee the sustainability of the industry and the community.

The group discussed the development of the President's Council on Sustainability and the new annual Sustainability Report from the carpet industry. This report tells the story of what the industry is accomplishing in focusing on sustainable growth creating high performance products while decreasing their environmental footprint for the value of future generations. The reasons for these efforts are environmental (to assess the overall impact of products on the environment and society, minimizing any adverse impact and to practice material and energy conservation and reduction), economic (to improve performance with best industry practices), and societal (to improve the performance of their products to create the highest value for customers, and to provide a safe and healthy place for their employees to work).

In the ensuing discussion, participants provided recommendations particularly for ways that the carpet industry could interact more with the growing Hispanic community, in the following arenas: by helping to overcome the language barrier; by helping to legalize more people; by providing information about higher and continued education; by communicating the options for healthcare to help the population decrease use of the hospital emergency room; by helping to provide legal guidance and assistance; and by helping to communicate the "good new stories" about the Hispanic community.

The initial group consists of the following community volunteers: Jim Burran, president of Dalton State College; Ray Elrod, Mayor of Dalton; John Bowling, CEO of Hamilton Medical Center; Robert Delaney, publisher of Daily Citizen News; Helen Gamble, Extension Home Economist; Father Bill Hoffman, priest, St. Joseph's Catholic Church; Greg Kinnamon, attorney; Francisco Palacios, publisher of La Voz; Tom Potts, owner of Barn Nursery; Denise Wood, environmental coordinator at Mohawk Industries; and George Woodward, president of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce. In the future, there will be additions from other parts of the community.