Trying to determine whether a particular product is “green” can be a daunting experience. It is important to work with a retailer who is knowledgeable about green flooring products. These dealers can help identify products that are certified as environmentally friendly, assist in ensuring the installation meets environmental standards and provide information about the various green programs that are available. These can often lead to tax benefits and even better financing of your new home or floor.

Each flooring type has green solutions. Products discussed here include cork, bamboo, carpet, stone, hardwood, linoleum, and ceramic tile.

Cork

Cork represents a special kind of renewable resource because it is a harvested resource (only the bark is harvested from the tree). Cork floors are made from the waste cork that makes wine stoppers. A law in the 1930’s called “The 9 Year Law” was passed to keep cork from being harvested any sooner than every 9 years. The tree has to reach 60 cm in circumference before it can be harvested. The first harvest from a cork tree can only occur at age 25.

Green Benefits of Cork:

• Renewable resource
• Recycled product
• Never harvested before it’s mature
• Tree is not destroyed or damaged when harvested
• Maximum benefits are achieved by using water-based finishes and adhesives

Bamboo

Bamboo is a rapidly renewing resource that matures in three years. There currently is no bamboo certified as meeting various environmental production or preservation standards, so it is important to try to learn as much as you can about the bamboo you are interested in before purchasing it. Most bamboo is grown in Asia and the impact of transporting it to the United States market should be considered.

Green Benefits of Bamboo:

Carpet

According to the Carpet and Rug Institute, the carpet industry is minimizing carpet’s impact on the environment through the new “3 Rs,” which stand for reduce, reuse and recycle. When carpet reaches the end of its long life, it is reused to make new carpet or is recycled into a variety of products. The Green Label and Green Label Plus programs from the Carpet and Rug Institute ensure that customers are purchasing among the lowest-emitting carpet, adhesive, and cushion products on the market.

Green Benefits of Carpet:

• New efforts to minimize environmental impact
• Contains many potential green attributes: carpet fibers, toxics content, dye, VOC emissions, and recycled content
• Certification for safer purchases available
• Many made from recycled PET containers
• Some made from recycled nylon or old car tires
• Wools come from natural, biodegradable materials

Stone

There is no generally accepted data on the environmental impacts of using stone as a building material. Likely impacts relate to water and energy consumption, yields from raw materials, recyclability, and other measures that are considered in life cycle assessments, as well as energy used in transportation, processing, and selling the material.

Green Benefits of Stone:

Hardwood

Hardwood is a great green flooring choice because of its natural, renewable, and recyclable properties. Not all hardwoods, however, are automatically environmentally friendly. Hardwoods that are harvested without replanting the forest can lead to an adverse impact on the environment. There are a variety of programs that certify which hardwood products are environmentally friendly. The key is to look for the certification label or materials to verify that a product meets green standards. The most common product certification programs are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) that certify wood from specially-managed forests.

Purchase hardwood floors. It is recommended that hardwood flooring be certified as environmentally friendly to ensure that the wood is not “clear cut” (a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in a forest sector are cut down) but harvested in a sustainable fashion. Only 4% of the nation’s own native, old growth forests are still standing. The U.S. is the world’s largest importer and consumer of timber woods and products.

Green Benefits of Hardwood:

• Natural Resource
• Enduring lifecycle
• Renewable
• Recyclable
• Suitable for a “healthy home” environment
• Forests are managed for replanting

Linoleum

Linoleum is not a new product and has always had many environmental benefits. The natural raw materials used to create Linoleum are available in abundance: linseed oil, resin, wood flour, cork flour, ecologically responsible pigments and jute. The plants and trees that supply linoleum's raw materials also contribute to the production of oxygen and the subsequent reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thus reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses present in the atmosphere.

Green Benefits of Linoleum:

Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tile can be viewed as more green in some lights than in others. Its weight uses more fuel for transportation than other products, which leaves its overall green value unclear.

Green Benefits of Ceramic Tile:

In addition to types of green flooring, there are products that can be used in conjunction with flooring that may possess green qualities. The most common are adhesives and cleaners.

There are further considerations than just the actual flooring that will be purchased. The installation method and products used should be considered as well as how the final product will be maintained.