Standing on Green Principles: Sustainable Flooring Choices and Life Cycle Assessment

Innovative technologies, as well as tried-and-true materials, contribute to sustainable flooring from
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Sponsored by Amorim Flooring North America, Forbo Flooring Systems and Teragren® Fine Bamboo Flooring, Panels & Veneer
C.C. Sullivan
Natural linoleum flooring is made from linseed and other component materials that provide static-free performance and antimicrobial properties, which enhance its performance during all life cycle phases. These properties lend themselves to application in healthcare and other complex facility types.
Photo by Michael Parker Photography; Courtesy of Forbo Flooring Systems

 

Cork: One such alternative is, ironically, an ancient flooring solution, not a new one: cork. Many buildings up to 100 years old or more, including the Library of Congress, still have their original cork flooring, a sign of its durability. Proponents of cork point to the extraction process as amodel of renewability. Cork is bark, not lumber, and thus does not require the entire plant to be harvested. Since the tree lives there is no need for replanting; the cork oak can be harvested up to sixteen times in its 200- year life span. "The cork industry does not destroy the ecosystemwhere the tree lives, but instead creates wealth while keeping nature as it is," says Paulo Nogueira, managing director of the cork producer and distributor Amorim Flooring, Hanover, Maryland, adding that the cork industry represents $3 billion of Portugal's GDP, employing about 150,000 people and manufacturing about 70 percent of the world's cork materials and finished products. "We can create jobs and economic activity in balance with the world in which we live."

In fact, a study by a university in Portugal showed that cork oak forests are responsible for five percent of the CO2 captured in their local environments. Keeping the plants alive by harvesting only the bark is potentially part of the solution to the problem of greenhouse gases. Availability and cost may be additional selection factors when choosing cork, but it is likely to score well in the extraction portion of any LCA.

Bamboo: Bamboo is another highly renewable alternative to traditional wood flooring, frequently touted as a resilient, attractive material that can mimic other wood types (discussed later in this course). While many people envision that bamboo plants are harvested like most trees-in their entirety-they are actually cut above the root structure, which remains in place and grows again. Additionally, bamboo grows very quickly: Harvests occur only a handful of years after planting, while most trees take decades to mature-up to 60 years for some common hardwoods. For that reason, the concept of bamboo deforestation is almost impossible. And as with cork, there are the benefits to the atmosphere: Bamboo scrubs up to five tons of CO2 from the air per acre of plants, and can produce 35 percent more oxygen than comparable clusters of trees.

There are, however, some 1,500 species of bamboo, and they are not all adequate for manufacture of flooring products. Moso bamboo, the species found primarily in the Zhejiang province of China, has been shown the most apt for building finish applications. (There is no such thing yet as domestically produced bamboo for architectural flooring use.) While some manufacturers will harvest Moso at three years, the plant does not fully mature until almost six years after planting. This can have repercussions in terms of both sustainability and product durability in a floor's life cycle.

Specifiers should also know how the bamboo was harvested, adds Ann Knight, a principal and executive vice president at Teragren, the Bainbridge Island, Washington-based manufacturer of bamboo products. Moso can be easily cut by hand with a machete, Knight explains. Specifiers can inquire whether their bamboo was unnecessarily harvested by bulldozer, which can damage the root structure as well as the ecosystem. "Also, bamboo must be treated and processed within two days of harvesting," says Knight. Did your bamboo languish untreated for several days or more? If so, the product may be inferior, and degrade much more quickly than expected.

 

What about the Pandas?

As anyone who has been to the zoo knows, pandas eat bamboo. So how are we affecting pandas when we make their delicious bamboo into hardwood floors?

The answer is: not at all.

While all the normal implications of harvesting a natural resource apply, and must be considered carefully, there is no reason to fear that harvesting bamboo is "eating the lunch" of the panda population.

There are 1,500 or so species of bamboo plants. About 25 of those are regular panda food-and none of those is Moso bamboo, which is recommended for flooring and other finish products.

So when you suggest bamboo flooring and the client says, "But what about the pandas?" you can assure the decision makers that Ling-Ling's cousins have nothing to fear. There will be plenty of wild bamboo for them to eat.

 

Resilient roll and tile: Resilient flooring products include vinyl, vinyl composition tile (VCT), rubber, and linoleum flooring products. Composite flooring products such as linoleum are made of various materials blended together, and each constituent should be assessed for LCA in the extraction stage. In the case of linoleum, this generally may include linseed oil, wood flour or cork dust, and burlap or canvas. More recent innovations in composite flooring might add other ingredients to the mix, as manufacturers each create their own proprietary linoleum-type flooring formulations. So what is a sustainability-minded architect or specifier to do? Faced with deadlines and client expectations, some will be tempted to throw up their hands even as the benefits of the products might be ideal for a given project.

Fortunately, many manufacturers have begun to apply their own LCAs to the products they are marketing, providing at least a useful starting point. Savvy green-building professionals will incorporate manufacturer LCA data into their own life cycle reviews, taking care to look for assessments provide rigorous, useful data. While marketing materials may be designed to cast a favorable light on the product, an LCA document should be facts-only. A bit of applied perspicacity will help the practitioner divine which manufacturer-provided LCA data are likely reliable-and which should be verified by comparison with independent studies."It's one thing to do internal LCAs, but you need independently done, third-party certified and peer-reviewed LCA assessment," says Tim Cole, director of Environmental Initiatives and Product Development at Forbo Flooring Systems, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, the Swiss materials manufacturer. "And not just gate-to-gate mode, but cradle to cradle."

To ensure sustainable resource extraction, Cole observes, many companies, including Forbo Flooring Systems, have performed thorough supplier reviews to assess theirmethods, fromlabor practices to waste disposal. "I've been out with the flax farmers, telling them that the decisions they make in the fields-decisions about crop rotation, no-till methods, injection fertilization-can have a huge impact on surrounding ecosystems," say Cole. Among other measures, Forbo's farmers are being cautioned about eutrophication, which results from over-fertilizing. Cole explains that fertilizers carried by rain run-off into bodies of water create an overabundance of nutrients, which can cause "algae bloom." Too much algae means that there is not enough oxygen for other forms of life to breathe, resulting in eutrophication, an effect that can be caused even by "natural" fertilizers. The farmers are informed about the process, given alternatives to heavy fertilizing, and encouraged to monitor the waterways downriver and on adjacent tracts in order to increase their yield.

 

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Originally published in GreenSource
Originally published in April 2008

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