SHANGHAI, CHINA—Frank Hurd, vice president, and Jeff Carrier, sustainability/IAQ program manager, for the Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI), recently met with representatives of the Chinese Carpet Industry Association (CCIA) here. The trip was designed to strengthen CRI’s current relationships with CCIA and its members, specifically regarding the use of CRI’s Green Label Plus (GLP) standard for indoor air quality testing, Hurd said.

China is the largest GLP user outside the U.S. with 21 mills participating.

In its meetings with the CCIA, CRI also gave presentations on ANSI/NSF-140, the Carpet America Recovery Effort ( CARE) and technical issues. “We clarified several things that will enhance GLP testing of Chinese carpet products,” Hurd said. “It is clear from our extensive conversations with CCIA that Chinese manufacturers support GLP over other indoor air testing programs.”

Hurd and Carrier also visited Beijing with Madame Zhang, CCIA’s president, and went to Xining where they attended the annual Qinghai Tibetan World Carpet Exhibition. Hand and machine woven rug producers from China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and Tibet were all on hand to display their rugs.

“The interests of our membership are increasingly expanding outside U.S. borders,” Carrier said. “This trip helped introduce us to a large contingent of those peers.”

For more on CRI, call 706.428.2116.