CROSSVILLE, TN -- American porcelain tile manufacturer Crossville® has earned Green Squared^SM certification from the Tile Council of North America (TCNA) for its entire U.S.-manufactured porcelain product line-up, as well as its manufacturing processes. The company is among the first ever recipients of this newly minted certification standard for the tile industry.

TCNA developed the Green Squared certification under American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process. The multi-attribute program (ANSI A138.1) scores products in five categories of performance: product characteristics, manufacturing, corporate governance, innovation and end-of-life. Crossville's certified products and processes received stringent evaluation from Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), the green building industry's longest standing third-party certifier and the premium certification body for Green Squared.

"We at Crossville are excited about Green Squared and what it means for our industry," said Crossville's Director of Technical Services Tim Bolby. "We now have an industry-wide standard -- a common ground -- by which environmental achievement can be measured and validated."

Crossville's inclusion among the inaugural class of Green Squared certification recipients is just one of many firsts in sustainability the company has earned in the North American tile industry. Crossville was the first to manufacture tile with certified recycled content, develop a solution for taking back and using previously fired porcelain and earn certification of waste recycling processes, reports the company. As a net consumer of waste, the company utilizes more waste product than it produces.

As Bolby explains, Crossville is the "first among the first" of Green Squared recipients to earn certification for an entire product line-up as well as for manufacturing processes. "We produce sustainable products through certified sustainable processes; that is our standard," he said.

For more information on the Green Squared program, visit Tile Natural Choice's website. For details on Crossville's sustainable practices, visit: crossvilleinc.com/sustainable_practices.