Armstrong recognizes we have a responsibility to limit the environmental impact of our products and make positive contributions to the future of healthy, sustainable spaces. Through our SUSTAIN® portfolio, we offer ceiling and wall solutions that meet the highest environmental and health standards. We also continue to push toward greater ingredient and embodied carbon transparency for all our products, and to reduce our carbon and water footprints while contributing to circular economy models that minimize waste.
Designing and Testing
Our design and testing processes are focused on the health and safety aspects of our products, as well as optimizing sustainability starting with the design phase and carried through end-of-life. All our new products, including those manufactured by authorized third-party vendors, undergo a comprehensive Product Safety Design Review Process that covers a multiphase screening for safety attributes, including chemical content, seismic and fire performance and compliance with indoor air quality standards. We regularly review the latest regulatory guidance to monitor ongoing compliance with local and global regulations regarding safety and chemicals of concern.
We work to ensure safe use of our products across the value chain. Builders and contractors using our products must follow mandatory guidance on safe and effective installation in order to maintain our warranties, and we actively solicit feedback on our products through mock-ups and test installations from our customers, including annual audits with contractors.
How We Govern Product Stewardship at Armstrong
We govern product stewardship through a number of councils, committees and departments, explained in the diagram below.
Eliminating Chemicals of Concern
We continue to work to eliminate chemicals of concern from our products. We internally screen our products against a variety of sources to define our list of chemicals of concern, including state-level databases in the United States, the European Chemicals Agency’s current REACH list of restricted substance and International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge® (LBC) Red List, among others. As research into common manufacturing chemicals continues to evolve and expand, so do these lists. Armstrong is committed to tracking and monitoring new potential chemicals of concern that emerge from ongoing research, and we continue to work with our suppliers to optimize our products.
SUSTAIN®
In 2017, we launched SUSTAIN®, the industry’s largest portfolio of high-performing, sustainable ceiling and wall solutions. We can identify material composition to the 100 parts per million (ppm) level for our SUSTAIN® products, which are free of LBC Red List chemicals, and meet the most stringent health and environmental standards. As of 2021, 60% of our business is compliant with SUSTAIN® standards. More information on SUSTAIN® mineral fiber, fiberglass, metal and felt ceilings can be found here. To read more on how we work to reduce embodied carbon through our value chain, click here.