By Matthew Spieler
Though the environmental movement has quickly spread throughout the residential market to the point that green is everywhere one looks, it was the commercial sector where it all started over a decade ago. And today, not only does contract continue to be the area where the majority of environmental initiatives come from, the commercial flooring industry—from the manufacturer to the contractor—remains at the forefront of this endeavor.

Commercial flooring manufacturers are doing more than just adding recycled content to their products, they have instituted programs individually and collectively to make them better environmental stewards as well as leaders in the green movement.

“The flooring industry should feel good about its environmental progress to date,” said John Bradshaw, environmental marketing manager for Shaw. “However, there is still much to do, and concern for the environment is not going away. Our industry must continually develop methods and products that are better for our Earth.”

While all sectors of the flooring industry have lead the charge, the carpet category as a whole has been recognized as a driving force behind the movement.

An article, “Making Carpet Environmentally Friendly,” by Environmental Building News in June 2007 points out how much the industry has changed since the last time it wrote a story on the category 13 years ago. In fact, interior designer and industry observer Penny Bonda is even quoted as saying, “I don’t think there is a commercial product segment that is greener than carpet.”

While the article states, “The industry is still very resource-intensive,” the author notes that since 1994, “the industry is more environmentally aware and competitive. It is offering more options designed to meet the needs of green builders, as well as better tools for evaluating carpet, including life-cycle assessment software and broad-based certification programs.”

So just what has been taking place lately in the world of carpet and the environment?

Being aggressive

From an overall viewpoint, the carpet industry has been very active and has voluntarily created a number of environmental programs and initiatives.

Many of these have gone on to become nationally recognized standards, even surpassing the most stringent ones imposed by California and have also become the model by which all others are done. Some of the most notable ones include:

• ANSI-NSF 140 Sustainable Carpet Assessment Standard. Introduced this past November at GreenBuild ( FCNews, Nov. 26/Dec. 3), this is the most recent example of how proactive the carpet segment has been. NSF-140 is the first-ever multiattribute American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-approved standard. The program is so comprehensive that California has said it will align the platinum level of NSF-140 with its Gold Sustainable Carpet Standard.

• Carpet & Rug Institute’s (CRI) Green Label/Green Label Plus. One of the earliest examples of the industry taking a leadership role in sustainability, this program began in 1992 to test carpet, cushion and adhesives. Since its introduction, CRI has strengthened the program three times and it has since become even more stringent than California’s infamous 01350.

• Carpet American Recovery Effort ( CARE). Considered an historic achievement in that an entire industry got together with the mission of diverting its product from the country’s landfills. When the initiative began in 2002, it was the only such program in the country because it was done voluntarily whereas a number of other industries have had the U.S. government come down and regulate them. From 2002 to 2007 CARE is responsible for keeping over one billion pounds of carpet out of landfills. In fact, last year alone, just under 300 million pounds of carpet were reclaimed, a 19% increase over 2006.

The hard surface side of the flooring industry has been equally aggressive when it comes to spearheading programs and initiatives that help show how and why their products are environmentally friendly.

For example, last July, the draft of ANSI NSF-332 Standard for Sustainable Resilient Flooring was released and is nearing completion to become a full-fledged standard like its carpet counterpart.

Under the program, all resilient floor coverings including vinyl tile, sheet vinyl, rubber, polymeric and linoleum products, are eligible to be tested and certified.

As part of its way of showing support for the standard, Bill Freeman, consultant to the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI), said when the draft was released, “Members of RFCI are vitally interested in the environmental impact of the flooring materials they manufacture and distribute. A sustainability standard for resilient flooring developed by NSF in accordance with the ANSI requirements will provide useful information about the sustainability of resilient floors being considered for specification or purchase.”

Even before NSF-332 was borne, the resilient industry banded together to develop FloorScore Certification. Created by RFCI in conjunction with Scientific Certification Systems, it tests and certifies flooring products for compliance with indoor air quality emission requirements adopted in California. While created by the resilient arm of the industry, FloorScore was developed to test and certify all hard surface floors, including laminate, wood and ceramic.

Even these other categories have created programs to ensure architects, designers and end users their products are sustainable. From the National Wood Flooring Association teaming up with Yale University on a comprehensive study that shows wood flooring to be among the most sustainable of building products to the tile industry creating an agency to certify if a product is porcelain— an important criteria, especially in the commercial sector where tougher, more durable products are needed— the hard surface flooring industry has been equally as busy as the soft side.

Over and above

The programs referenced here go beyond what the industry has done with other nationally and internationally recognized green rating systems, the most famous of these being the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) standards.

Both soft and hard surface manufacturers are either charter members of these organizations or joined shortly after they were formed.

In fact, the list here does not even mention the number of flooring mills that have gone the extra effort to ensure their facilities— both offices and production plants—operate in an eco-friendly manner based on national and international principles.

This includes meeting the criteria by USGBC, and involves such notable distinctions as Armstrong’s LEED-EB Platinum certification for its headquarters in Lancaster, Pa.—the first building outside of California recognized— or Bentley Prince Street becoming the first to achieve a LEED rating for a manufacturing facility.

In addition, many flooring manufacturers have been recognized by the International Standards Organization (ISO) for meeting one or more of its environmental management standards listed under ISO 14000, which is a series of international standards on environmental management.

In the end, it is clear the flooring industry as a whole, and the commercial side of it in particular, has been and continues to be a leader in pushing for more sustainability at the manufacturing level.

The June 2007 story in Environmental Building News may have been about carpet but the author concludes it with a bit of advice that can be used for he entire flooring industry: “...improving [flooring] isn’t just up to manufacturers—it is designers, purchasers and consumers who make [flooring] the popular [product] that it is, and it’s up to this group to use [flooring] wisely and to continue to ask manufacturers to improve.”