By Matthew Spieler
PORT SAINT LUCIE, FLA.—Living a so-called environmentally friendly life has had a certain stigma attached to it, and it usually is not a nice one. From the type of house to the furnishings inside, most associate a green lifestyle with either a crude, outdated way of living or one that features wild, out-of-this-world products that look like they belong in an episode of “Lost in Space.”

It doesn’t need to be this way. And thanks to HGTV and sponsors such as Shaw Industries, the network’s 100 million viewers are finding this out first hand as part of the cable station’s second Green Home Giveaway.

“Our No. 1 goal was to create a beautiful house,” said Jack Thommason, president of The Home Department and HGTV’s house planner, during a special VIP dealer and trade media tour, “but also have it be green without it being far out, spaceship like. We wanted to show that you can be eco-conscious and still have a comfortable, beautiful, stylish house that anyone would be proud to live in.”

Located in the master-planned community of Tradition, the 2009 HGTV Green Home is a 2,430-squarefoot contemporary Spanish-style cottage featuring construction and design elements that contribute to an energy efficient, cleaner and healthier living environment.

This includes all the flooring in the house—and even a little bit of the living room ceiling—as well as wall splashes in the bathrooms and kitchen that were contributed to the project by Shaw. Products included some of the mill’s newest offerings and designs as well as some of its best selling styles in a variety of categories.

Some of the flooring featured products from Shaw’s Epic Hardwood, which uses 50% less harvested wood than comparable engineered floors; new tile and stone, including Matrix, which contains up to 40% recycled post-industrial content, and new Glass Mosaics; cut and bound area rugs made with either Shaw’s recyclable Anso or EverTouch nylons, and indoor/outdoor carpet.

In addition to using the new Wild Frontier style from Epic throughout the house, the collection’s Canyon West, an instant top-five seller for Shaw, was used in the living room’s “tower ceiling” skylight setting.

Thommason pointed out not anyone can be a sponsor for the Green Home, which, along with Shaw, included such popular brand names as Kenmore, Kohler, Sherwin-Williams and Bravia. “We have a very large audience, reaching almost 100 million households, and our viewers want to know everything about the house, from A to Z. So we want them to feel confident these companies do what they say when it comes to being eco minded so every sponsor is thoroughly vetted.”

Green honors

As a result of this process, the house has received two distinguished environmental honors. First, the residence earned a platinum designation under the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED for Homes)—the highest honor given under the organization’s internationally recognized rating system. And, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bestowed its Indoor airPLUS label on the home, meaning it met strict guidelines for reducing poor indoor air quality as well as having third-party verification on everything.

The EPA designation also means the house meets guidelines for energy efficiency set by the agency’s Energy Star program.

“Is there any doubt why Shaw wanted to participate in the HGTV Green Home?” Reggie Newton, Shaw’s vice president of sales, asked the invitation-only guests after touring the house. “This place shows that when you combine innovative products and applications the result is inspiring. And, when people find out it is platinum rated under LEED, it’s a ‘wow’ factor.”

He noted individuals and corporations need to stand for something and “put their stake in the ground, proclaiming, ‘This is what I stand for,’ ‘This is what I believe in.’”

The HGTV Green Home, of which Shaw also sponsored for the inaugural project last year, fits in perfectly with the company’s GreenEdge environmental platform, Newton added. “This project incorporates the three pillars of GreenEdge: environmental excellence, innovative products and services, and social responsibility. These are part of everything we do—from our manufacturing facilities to our products and everything in between.”

In addition to the HGTV Green Home fitting into Shaw’s core values, Newton said the sponsorship is one way the mill is trying to grab consumer attention and drive them into retail stores.

HGTV viewers who see its national advertising as well as the thousands of consumers who visited the house are driven to sponsors’ Web sites to learn about their respective green products.

In conjunction with this, Shaw has been running a promotion that allows consumers to print a $200 coupon for use on their next Shaw flooring purchase.

Todd Callaway, Shaw’s interactive marketing manager, said the Internet coupon promo is not only working, but is doing better than last year’s incentive in every which way the numbers are measured.

Shaw’s Web site has seen a 21% increase in traffic overall, a 37% increase to its Spring is Green section, a 209% increase in the number of coupons being printed, and a 1,600% increase in the number of coupons actually redeemed compared to the same period a year ago.

Green also equals money

With the spring promotion ending as FCNews went to press, final numbers were not available, but Callaway said initial figures indicate approximately $6 million in retail sales have taken place just from transactions involving the $200 coupons. This number is expected to increase as consumers have until the end of June to redeem them and dealers have another month to turn them in. The average sale so far has been $3,400.

“We can really see the momentum,” he said. “It’s obvious, consumers do not view the $200 as a little bit, but rather feel it represents a substantial savings.”

Because of the success of the incentive, Shaw is going to do it again in the fall, from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, Newton said the company is widening the net to allow more retailers to participate.

Up until now, only Shaw Flooring Aligned (SFA) dealers are allowed to take part in the promotion, and there about 2,000 retailers currently taking advantage of it. “For the fall,” he explained, “we are opening the incentive to our A and B customers and will include these new retailers with the same priority on our Web site’s dealer locator.”

Registration for the fall promotion is now open. Contact your local Shaw rep for more details. “We hope the fall promo will spill into next spring,” Newton said, “when we want to be back as a sponsor for the next HGTV Green Home.”

Thommason did not seem disappointed, noting Shaw “has been a great company to work with.” Beyond traveling to Dalton to look at its products, “Shaw did everything it said it would, when it said it would. Basically, there were no surprises—which in the building industry is a good thing.”

The 2009 HGTV Green Home and furnishings, along with a 2009 GMC Sierra Hybrid, are being given away as part of the network’s various home giveaways to viewers. The grand prize package is worth $750,000. HGTV will announce the winner during a special broadcast June 28 at 8 p.m.