POSTED ON 10/19/10 | Connor Sport Court International, the Salt Lake City based maker of sports surfaces, has been nominated for the “Green Business Awards” of Utah Business Magazine. The nomination was made by McGillis School’s Matt Culberson, head of the school, which opened for school September 1 after extensive renovation, including hardwood Connor Floors inside the gymnasium and a Sport Court game court outside.
The nominating letter reads, in part:
As a result of our extensive renovation the past two years, the McGillis School of Salt Lake City would like to nominate Utah’s Connor Sport Court International for your Green Business awards.
During our bidding process, we concluded that Connor Sport Court is a company of “firsts” in environmental responsibility, a major factor in our choice of sport flooring providers.
• McGillis School selected Connor Sport Court International in part because it is the only sport surfacing company in the world that is independently audited and verified as a “Zero Waste” company. Connor Sport Court currently sends less that 1% of its waste to a landfill. Recycling, avoiding waste and innovative product technology resulted in Connor Sport Court being certified by SWCA Environmental Performance Group.
• We selected Sport Court’s new SportBase™ as the sub-base for our outdoor game court surface. SportBase not only provides increased safety and performance, it also utilizes 100% recycled materials in its production. These materials are typically sent to landfills. SportBase is designed to channel water freely through the system for absorption back in the ground. This precludes the need for expensive pervious concrete mixes, reduces the extremely high energy requirements for the production of concrete and helps meet requirements for community runoff standards.
• The company recycles the engineered polymer surplus from its manufacturing process, turning it into a specialty surface called Dance™, an economical portable flooring that can transform almost any space into a ballroom. This surplus might otherwise go to landfills.
• Connor was the clear environmental choice for our indoor gymnasium floor. Connor Sports Flooring was the first Maple Flooring Manufacturing Association (MFMA) member to provide Smartwood maple flooring certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC identifies products from responsibly-managed forests. Hardwood used in Connor’s courts is from a renewable resource, with the U.S. growing six times more hardwood than is harvested each year. The company’s Connor operation was the first MFMA member to be certified by the Rain Forest Alliance.
• They are the only company in the world to develop and incorporate recycled modular sub-floor panels into the construction of DIN certified, high performance resilient hardwood sports floors. Called GreenPlay™, GreenPlay panels are produced from the scrap generated in the production of Sport Court’s other flooring systems. The subfloor panels feature nearly 100% recycled materials. No other sports flooring manufacturer features this unique technology and was a key reason McGillis School selected this Connor hardwood system for our gymnasium subsurface.
• Connor Sport Court also received an award from Salt Lake City for its state-ofthe- art demonstration court, xeriscaping and other environmental improvements to its headquarters at 939 S. 700 West in Salt Lake City
• Connor Sport Court is now certified ISO-14001:2004, the highest environmental manufacturing standard. The company also has other environmental initiatives underway, including a SIX SIGMA project to reduce energy usage.
“The McGillis School is striving for Gold Certification and is on track achieving all points submitted to date,” said Glen W. Anderson, the architect for the project. “Even after increasing the building footprint by 30,000 square feet we achieved a reduction of 60 percent of asphalt and impervious surfaces and increased the green open space by 20 percent. This also exceeded the city’s minimum open space requirements by 36.9%. The school is also keeping its commitment to share the open space with the local neighborhood community,” Anderson added.
This was all possible as a result of our working together with Salt Lake City’s own Connor Sport Court International, one of the true leaders in environmental and social responsibility, and undoubtedly the type of company deserving of Utah’s “Green Business” award.
Sincerely,
Matt Culberson
Head of School
