6.6 Innovation Credit.

Innovation Credits of 15 points are requested for two substantial reductions in environmental impacts resulting from improvements as a result of Forbo's LCA Process.

First, the Topshield Finish now uses a water based curing process for the linoleum finish eliminating the use of solvents that emitted VOCs from both the production facilities and finished product resulting in an overall 4.1% improvement in environmental impacts based on the total LCA score and an improvement from the baseline in all 12 measured LCA environmental impacts.  The California 1350 VOC score improved by 50% with a concomitant 50% VOC reduction in the finished product.  This Topshield improvement was effective at all Forbo manufacturing facilities since January 2006.

Second, since 2001 the recycled content of linoleum was increased without any change in end product properties.  This resulted in 100% reduction in waste and thus zero waste facilities and a savings of about 5% in reduced raw materials.