Flooring, Green Flooring, Natural, Unique & Creative Sources

Green flooring from natural and renewable, non-toxic materials can come from many sources:

Thankfully, there is a renewed interest in construction materials that are nontoxic and referred to as 'green' building materials. Green flooring is just one of the many categories to consider and there are many choices within this category.

Milliken Carpet in Georgia has introduced a green flooring choice, TractionBack modular carpet squares. They have a high-friction coating on the back of the carpet tiles. This allows the squares to be installed without mess glues or adhesives. It does not even have to have a peel and stick cover. These carpet tiles will not move on the floor but can be removed to access utilities under the floor or to replace damaged or worn out spots. The TractionBack system is suppose to reduce installation time and air quality. The Tucson Convention Center is one of the first places to try it out. You can design a patterned floor with different color tiles. www.millikencarpet.com

Forbo Flooring makes a natural product called Marmoleum that is available as a floor tile or in rolls. Marmoleum is a natural product made from linseed oil, wood flour, rosin, jute and limestone. It comes in many colors. Marmoleum Click is an ecologically manufactured natural linoleum with a cork layer. It comes in 12 x 12 in and 12 x 36 in tiles. You can design your own patterned floor. It is suitable for any room in the house. The floor tiles lock together with a slide in system and you click the panels into place. It can even be used with under floor heating systems. www.forbo-industries.com

Bamboo Flooring:

Floor Junkies--this is an odd name but they have a very straightforward website that offers several types of bamboo flooring. Flooring Junkies says they sell "Premium Green (Grade A) wood flooring. Please do not be fooled by some peoples low price. If they are cheaper than ours it is probably not Grade A." There is an online chat option but you have to download and install a small program, I doubt many people will do that. There is a phone number though. Located in Houston,Texas. www.floorjunkies.com

Higuera Imports ---bamboo flooring. Higuera Hardwoods stocks a full line of the finest Grade-A Bamboo flooring, bamboo mouldings, bamboo stair parts, bamboo plywood and bamboo veneers. They exclusively use Moso bamboo, a type of fast growing grass plant, as the main raw material. To avoid toxicity issues, they use high quality European glue, all emissions meet the E1 standard and are not harmful to the human body. Higuera Imports also uses the most abrasion-resistant aluminum-oxide finish, which surpasses the American ASTM4060 standard. Additionally, Higuera Hardwoods has a new full service manufacturing plant which opened in late 2006 specializing in custom parts, standard floor mouldings, handrails and stair systems.
Higuera Imports
19006 Front St.
Poulsbo, WA 98370
Phone: 360-779-4050
www.higuerahardwoods.com

Four Winds Bamboo Flooring-- contributes two points for LEED® certification under the United States Green Building Council's LEED®certification program:
New Commercial Construction
- MR Credit 6 (rapidly renewable resources)
- IEQ Credit 4 (low-emitting materials)
LEED® For Homes
- MR Credit 5.2 (rapidly renewable resources)
- IEQ Credit 8.2 (low-emitting materials)
Bamboo flooring is a healthy and environmentally conscious choice for interior design because Four Winds Bamboo flooring uses Certified Formaldehyde Free Finishes and has achieved the E1 Emissions standard. www.4windsbamboo.com

Cork Flooring

Natural Cork-- this is the leading supplier of cork floors in North America according to their website. Cork is great for noise reduction, and insulation. Cork can be finished to resist staining, scratches, and dirt but require little maintenance. Cork is truly a green flooring product, it does not require the cutting of trees. The bark of the cork tree is removed and re-grows. www.naturalcork.com

nora Rubber Flooring is a proud member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the nation's foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.The striking color granules that characterize noraplan fossil resemble fossil inclusions found in nature. The multi-colored granules are embedded in one of 16 base colors, each a blend of three harmoniously matched colors that supplement the existing noraplan range. The floor's smooth, nonglare finish reinforces the natural look of the line, making noraplan fossil the perfect compliment to wood, stone and other natural design elements. www.norarubber.com

The U.S. Green Building Council is the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Council members work together to develop LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) products and resources, the Greenbuild annual International Conference and Expo, policy guidance, and educational and marketing tools that support the adoption of sustainable building. Members also forge strategic alliances with key industry and research organizations and federal, state and local government agencies to transform the built environment. Check out their extensive links section of various ecology minded building resources. www.usgbc.org

Lonseal Inc., designer and manufacturer of resilient flooring and vertical surfacing products, pushes the limits of vinyl convention. As an environmentally conscientious manufacturer, Lonseal has developed its GreenVinyl™ program, which holds the company to a higher green standard. GreenVinyl™ is Lonseal's comprehensive environmental positioning initiative, encompassing developments in eco-friendly products and sustainable product attributes. www.lonseal.com

The LEED Green Building Rating System™, published by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is a rating system for building projects that assesses buildings in several different areas, including materials and resource consumption, energy and water use, indoor environmental quality and more. Individual products may contribute to a project's overall LEED™ rating, but must be considered in the context of the entire building project.

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a performance-oriented, consensus-developed rating system under which credits are earned for satisfying specific green building criteria. The five major environmental categories of review include: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of LEED certification are awarded based on the total number of points earned within each category. LEED can be applied to various building applications including new construction and renovations, commercial interiors, core & shell developments and existing building operations and maintenance. LEED programs are currently under development for neighborhood development and homes. LEED has been adopted nationwide by federal agencies, state and local governments, and private corporations as the benchmark for leadership in sustainable building. For more information, visit http://www.usgbc.org.

Rating and Certifying Building Products

There are several systems designed to rate or certify the environmental performance of individual products, such as the SCS Environmentally Preferable Product — Carpet certification, FSC Certified Wood certification, and the emerging MTS Sustainable Textile standard. These systems measure the environmental footprint of products in multiple areas, using published standards. The results of these systems may be a yes/no answer (products are either certified or not certified) or a graduated attainment level (e.g. "silver", "gold", "platinum").

Some product rating systems are based on editorial selection, which is a process with an subjective element. Editorial selection permits industry experts to identify products as "green" based on their experience and internally determined criteria. An example of a product directory built using an editorial selection model is the GreenSpec Directory, operated by www.BuildingGreen.com

A directory of product lifecycle analysis results is present in the BEES 3.0 software, published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Lifecycle analysis is a comprehensive study of environmental impacts throughout a product's manufacture, use and disposal (learn more). Publication of LCA results does not by itself mean anything about a product's environmental performance; it simply means that detailed information is available. However, companies that have chosen to perform product-specific LCAs and publish the results in BEES have undertaken considerable effort and expense to study and optimize the environmental performance of these products.

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Green Flooring, Natural Flooring, Unique & Creative Source

Green flooring from natural and renewable, non-toxic materials can come from many sources:

Bamboo Flooring:

Cork Flooring