Designing Green from the Floor Up!

December 14, 2008 - Being "green" is becoming a more and more sophisticated task these days. Throwing a coat of low VOC paint on your walls or using products made with a little recycled content hardly cuts it. To truly build green it has to start from the ground up. The first topic, therefore, of Design and Build Green is to discuss the floor.

It seems everywhere you turn these days, there is someone pushing a green story. Talking about how great they are, and how they have always been that way. Carpet manufacturer's are notorious for this. Mohawk, Shaw, Tandus, you name it, they all will tell you that their products are eco friendly, but let's take a closer look. A typical broadloom carpet installation produces 17-22% waste based on the net installed area. This waste almost inevitably ends up in the landfill. Even if the carpet is manufactured with 20% recycled content there is no net gain in landfill diversion.

So why not change this? There are a few manufacturer's that have. The answer is carpet tile. One of the earliest to enter this market was Interface who has been able to capitalize on their commercial carpet tile success with the launch of Flor. Flor has a fairly diverse portfolio of products almost all on their proprietary PVC backing. The styles are hip and modern though the feel of many of their products doesn't quite match up to traditional carpet choices. Simply Seamless, A Berkshire Flooring Brand (http://www.simplyseamlesscarpet.com) and Milliken's Lagato (http://www.millikencarpet.com) both provide carpet tile for home owner's that don't want to give up the comfort and feel of traditional frieze carpet.

The advantage of both Simply Seamless and Lagato is the attached cushion backing. Though each manufacturer has their own proprietary features, the PVC-Free backings provide comfort and insulation superior to Flor. Simply Seamless has the added benefit of being constructed with recycled content PET fiber which is durable and naturally stain resistant.

But what about hardsurfaces? Easy answer, linoleum... right? Actually no. Although linoleum is made from natural renewable resources the production of linoleum is a dreadfully un-eco-friendly process. In fact, linoleum cannot be produced in the United States because of our strict environmental policies. The better solution is a high post-consumer recyceled content luxury vinyl. Erthtek Architectural Materials (http://www.erthtek.com) has a wide array of such products including the Savatree, Hugatree, and Backwoods Collections which all have the added benefit of nano-silver anti-macrobial technology.

Until next time, remember the question is not paper or plastic... it's how far do you really have to carry it.