ST. LOUIS, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Public awareness about environmental issues is at an all-time high, and increasingly, consumers are doing their part by choosing products that have a minimal impact on the environment. As consumers become more ecologically conscious, they are demanding the use of sustainable and renewable building products in their homes and businesses.

The facts are clear: wood flooring is the only flooring option available that is completely sustainable, and with new guidelines promoting responsible forest management, wood flooring has become the flooring option of choice among many eco-friendly builders, architects, specifiers, designers and consumers.

Wood flooring is the most abundantly renewable flooring material available. Sustainable forest management makes it possible to harvest wood without any serious impact on the environment, because trees are a renewable resource that can be replaced time and time again.

Wood is produced in a factory called a forest by a renewable source of energy called the sun. Nonrenewable building materials must be produced in man-made factories. This requires large inputs of fossil fuels, resulting in high carbon dioxide emissions. In other words, all other possible flooring substitutes are more harmful to the environment. The answer to using environmentally friendly building options, then, is not to use less wood, but to grow more trees, and to promote sustainable forests.

Which is exactly what is happening. According to the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the average annual net growth for hardwoods is greater than average annual removals. In fact, the average growth to removal ratio is 1.66, which means that for every cubic foot of hardwood removed, 1.66 cubic feet is added. In all, the standing hardwood volume currently is 328 billion cubic feet, an increase of nearly 90% since 1953. Obviously, forests are sustainable, making wood a sustainable resource, and an obvious choice for environmentally conscious consumers.

To learn more about the benefits of wood flooring, visit the National Wood Flooring Association's web site at www.woodfloors.org.

The NWFA is a not-for-profit trade organization of more than 4,100 wood flooring professionals working worldwide to educate consumers, architects, designers, and builders in the uses and benefits of wood flooring. The NWFA can be contacted at 111 Chesterfield Industrial Blvd., Chesterfield, MO 63005, or at 800-422-4556 (USA), 800-848-8824 (Canada), or 636-519-9663 (international).