Handwoven Wool Armenian Area Rug, Sevan Kazak 5'x7'

Tufenkian was founded in 1986 on James Tufenkian’s mandate to “leave the places we touch a little better than we found them.”

With a business model that was developed with the intention of enriching the lives of its workers and their communities, Tufenkian leads the industry in humanitarian and environmental programs that secure the long-term health of the communities that it works with. The company invests over a million dollars of its annual profits into funding its Nepalese Worker Welfare Program and the Tufenkian Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1999. Before “no child labor” and “green” were buzzwords, Tufenkian refused to employ anyone under the age of 18, used traditional and earth-friendly production processes, and paid its workers competitive wages.

Tufenkian’s Worker Welfare Program far exceeds international standards: the company provides employees with food, housing, a medical complex, eye and dental clinics, clean drinking water, and school programs for their children. The Tufenkian Foundation works to improve the quality of practical, spiritual, creative, and cultural life in Nepal and Armenia through an aggressive slate of strategic projects.

As well as providing the workers with fresh air and a serene environment, the extensive gardens planted around Tufenkian’s Nepal facility combat the erosion usually caused by monsoons. The Foundation also leads the fight to stop Armenian deforestation, and the company heats its dye baths with oil rather than wood in order to reduce the rampant cutting of Nepal and Armenia’s forests. Tufenkian’s innovative water recycling system lets the water required for dyeing and washing carpets be continuously re-used, preserving a resource that is scarce in Nepal.