The Flooring Sustainability Summit returns July 16-17 to Washington D.C., bringing together 250 industry leaders to tackle evolving sustainability challenges. Bill Griese, deputy executive director of Tile Council of North America, discusses this year's focus on circularity, federal policy shifts, and marketplace alignment. The second day features design-focused programming at the Capitol Visitor Center, with panels and keynotes from ASID chair-elect Elizabeth Von Lehe and architect Eric Corey Freed.

Floor Trends & Installation spoke with Griese about what attendees can expect from this pivotal gathering of flooring and sustainability experts. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full discussion below.

Floor Trends & Installation: Bill, tell us about this year's conference and what we can expect.

Bill Griese: We're thrilled to run it back for another year and potentially do this every year. This year, there is a little bit of a continuation of last year, but really, what's unique about this year is that the landscape is a little bit different. There's a lot of uncertainty in public funding for a lot of sustainability initiatives.

One of the themes I like to joke about is that it is a big theme this year, what is the theme? Sustainability is still there. It's not going anywhere. The private sector and the free market definitely requires it, not just here in the U.S., but globally. It’s a good opportunity to reset, hear from the major sustainability organizations beyond flooring, where they're focusing their efforts, where flooring industry's focusing our efforts, where the federal government is focusing their efforts, maybe even locally at some governments to here.

Another big thing we're hearing this year is the term circularity. It's not new, the circular economy, circularity—we've been talking about for decades. But it's becoming really a marketing buzzword. We’re going to talk a lot about what it is and what should we be doing to make sure the marketplace is aligned.

Floor Trends & Installation: Last year you had 225 stakeholders attending. What do you think that says about the industry's evolving priorities regarding sustainability?

Griese: We had 225 last year. We're expecting about 250 this year, which is what we want. It's the perfect size, because we're not talking about just 250 average people off the street. What we're talking about, experts in the industry in flooring and experts in sustainability and decision makers.

The whole goal of this 250-attendee crowd is to exchange dialogue. We don't even like to use the word attendee. We like everyone there to feel part of the discussion, part of the summit. It's not a conference. It's not a trade show, it really is a summit to where everyone there is there to exchange dialogue. There's some education that's inherent to the whole process, but it's really more about collaboration and prioritizing our efforts and finding alignment.

Floor Trends & Installation: What makes this present moment so crucial for addressing sustainability in the flooring industry?

Griese: We’re at a more pivotal point—the landscape rapidly evolving in terms of where industry is focusing its efforts.

I think that each year leading up to this, even before the summit existed, had its own critical point, because this is such a rapidly evolving topic. What we talked about last year is still relevant this year, but this year is unique. Every year, you know, the future will be unique, so what makes it especially crucial this year is that we need to do this more often. It's great that we're doing this at least once a year, and continuing the conversation so that we keep the marketplace well organized, so that we actually can work towards sustainability.

Floor Trends & Installation: Last year's summit focused on standardizing sustainability terms like embodied carbon. Why is the lack of common definition such a problem for the industry?

Griese: It’s a marketplace that's competitive. And so when you see the demands for green building, when you see the demands for sustainability, we all want the same thing. We all want clean air, clean water, and clean land. I don't think anybody disagrees. It's nice to have a clean environment. I think where we differ is our reviews, beliefs, and values on how to get there. But we also differ in that each industry brings something valuable to the table. And so we all have our strengths. We all have our weaknesses. And of course, in a competitive landscape, we're going to focus on our strengths. And that can confuse the market quite quickly.

Terminology is a byproduct of this. One industry may be saying one thing, and another. So last year we talked about embodied carbon—the industries that focus on high energy up front and low energy over the life of a building, talk about the life cycle and the full, you know, the durability and how long something lasts and the opposite for products that don't last.

Where can we find a compromise? And it's really about transparency and communication. I think that ultimately, the end user will make the decision. We need to make sure that the end users are doing things that are productive and not counterproductive.

Floor Trends & Installation: How have those conversations continued from last year to this year? How do people stay engaged?

Griese: Social media is very powerful. You saw thousands of social media posts related to the summit, but certainly hundreds of articles that were run that led to the press being interested in asking more and more and more, so it wasn't just the summit itself.

This summit is a two-day event in Washington D.C.,  but we're also really building a community of leaders, stakeholders, and influencers, and a lot of dialogue continues beyond just the two-day event itself. We have a very active LinkedIn group... so a lot of dialogues have changed there. 

I do think we’ve created, in a way, a cluster that wasn't there before, a flooring cluster based on sustainability, and the event obviously anchors it but we've created a community that is even more valuable that we can we know who to talk to when we have questions about any any given topic.

Floor Trends & Installation: You're launching a project design award program this year. What inspired that?

Griese: It's critical that we have the designer. We were pleased with so much attention last year from the design community. We wanted to double down on that. We have the very first awards program this year, where we're going to feature projects that were especially impressive, not just in terms of sustainability, but also in terms of how flooring was integral to the sustainability success of that project.

The second day of the program will be design-heavy, taking place at the Capitol Visitor Center with the design community taking center stage, including design panels and closing keynotes from Elizabeth Von Lehe (chair-elect for ASID) and architect Eric Corey Freed.

Floor Trends & Installation: How do you measure the long-term impact of the summit?

Griese: We’re just like everything that's one of been one of the biggest challenges of green building and sustainability was there's a lot of initiatives and it's very difficult to measure or to quantify the success, but I think you can certainly feel it when you look at the attention the interest on social media when you look at the willingness of those involved in the summit to continue bringing ideas to the table.

It’s a no-brainer that we're going to continue this every year, which is a success in and of itself. But I do think you're starting to see some real impact in the marketplace. Maybe it's difficult to quantify, but when you look at, you know, organizations like U.S. Green Building Council, who keynoted last year and wants to keynote again this year... when you see these big-time organizations wanting to participate, wanting to be there at the table, I think that's a measure of success.

And when you also see the impact of last year you have Gensler and other major architectural firms reaching out saying this is great as a follow-up from the summit can we talk a little more because it's going to directly influence you know the next iteration of our Gensler product sustainability standards so you know these little networks that are being built are certainly a measure of success.

Floor Trends & Installation: How do people register?

Griese: It's very easy go to flooring summit .com and it's very self-explanatory once you get there.