By Matthew Spieler
It is not often that a highly sophisticated, engineered product is born with a litany of environmentally friendly features and attributes that are then improved upon by individual manufacturers in order to gain a competitive advantage. Such is the case with laminate flooring, which many in the category will say has been a green product long before the eco movement came into being.

Bill Dearing, president of the North American Laminate Flooring Association (NALFA), points out, “From its inception laminate flooring as always been regarded as a more environmentally conscious product, especially circa late 1980s early 1990s. It originated in Sweden and the Scandinavian countries have been ahead of the green curve with consumers compared to North America.”

What makes laminate inherently green? “The obvious benefit is it offers an alternative to cutting down the real tree,” noted Milton Goodwin, Armstrong’s vice president of laminate and ceramic products. “Your customers can get the look and feel of exotic and domestic woods [without harming the real thing]. Our laminate is made from wood fibers and wood chips—we use everything expect the bark.” In general, he added, laminate uses about 90% of the tree. “Also, we can use any tree—pine, oak, Eucalyptus, etc., so you do not need to use trees that are hard to replenish.”

Roger Farabee, senior vice president of marketing for Quick•Step, said while there are numerous environmentally friendly traits built into laminate floors, the aspect of not having to cut down a rare, exotic tree or endangered species is a major consideration that should not be taken lightly. “According to the BBC, the Brazilian government has reported that 20% of the Amazon forests have already been stripped by deforestation. Using only domestic, managed-forest woods that are plentiful we can offer exotic wood decors such as Brazilian cherry, African wengé, mahogany, afrormosia, and Malaysian merbau, as a part of the product line without having a negative impact on the world’s rain forests.”

Eric Erickson, Shaw’s laminate product manager, added, “Laminate is a product that offers years of wear while using very few natural resources. Laminates use 98% less newly harvested wood than conventional engineered hardwood products and our EnviroCore is made from post industrial wood fiber.”

Officials also note when it comes to actually manufacturing a laminate floor, the process is less obtrusive to the environment as well. Betsy Amoroso, director of corporate communications for Mannington, pointed out, “We use no adhesives in the manufacturing process— the product is created using heat and pressure only. Plus, the decorative paper layer is printed using water-based, low-VOC inks; and the thermoset melamine resin system is also water based.”

Manufacturers even make use of materials that in the past would have been deemed trash, ultimately ending up in America’s landfills. “Rather than going into a landfill,” Farabee explained, “our rejected product is either integrated into our chip board factory, burned to serve as heat for the laminate process, or sent to third- party manufacturers for reuse. Wood waste from our manufacturing is used as biomass fuel for process heating in our factories.”

Green packages

Dearing said laminate’s green attributes continue after the product is made. “Even the packaging, which used far less cardboard than any other product in the U.S. or Canada, was different when laminate flooring was introduced. Now those same packaging designs have been adapted for use on products other than laminate flooring.”

Armstrong’s Godwin added, “Laminate packaging is simpler, using less ink—two-color process— and also saves money. The box itself can be recycled.”

Installation also is a factor, he continued. “Especially when it comes to adhesives. You can install laminates—including our new commercial product— without using adhesives at all.

Even in cases where a seam adhesive is used, that, too, is environmentally friendly, explained Tammy Weadock, marketing manager for Wilsonart Flooring, noting the company’s BlueFusion product has been third-party certified by GreenGuard under its Standard for Low-Emitting Products. Taking it one step further, she said, “Even the ingredients used in our high-pressure laminate flooring cleaners are 100% biodegradable and VOC-free.”

Even laminate accessory makers have been able make good on the category’s greenness. For example, Thilo Hessler, president of Versatrim, said the core material in the company’s moldings is made from 85% pre-consumer recycled wood fiber. “We also send all our wood dust to a mulching facility instead of dumping it in the landfill.”

He noted even though the company “has been doing the right thing” since its inception eight years ago, it does not do any marketing around green. “We feel the word green is abused by many companies from left to right and, unfortunately, there is no governmental guidelines on what can be called green.”

Certified green

While there are no true legal ways to market green, the laminate category is trying to push for a national sustainability standard via the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

At Surfaces ’09, NALFA formed a sustainability subcommittee and has begun the process to develop a sustainability certification standard for laminate flooring under ANSI.

“Proper certification is exacting and lengthy and must be done correctly to have value,” Dearing explained. “NALFA will never shortcut on its standards development.” To that end, he added, “We expect not only to have a standard for laminate flooring alone, but this particular one will encompass the entire job, including underlayment.”

Sustainability is an important word, noted Weadock, as it goes beyond just environmental and includes social and economic factors. “We take sustainability very seriously,” noting last year the company created a director of sustainability position to work “closely with all aspects of our business, from maintenance to manufacturing to marketing. The goal is to identify and monitor sustainability programs, many of which are already in place, and to develop a plan for continuous improvement.”

Providing more in-house transparency by having someone responsible for a company’s environmental/sustainable side and creating a national standard can only help the category promote its green message to a weary consumer.

“The typical consumer has limited knowledge about green building materials,” noted Armstrong’s Godwin, “and is skeptical about sources of information on the subject. Making wise product selections is tough, especially when faced by a mass of marketing claims, greenwashing and the lack of credible sources for industry- independent, third-party information. People are confused and frustrated.”

People are not willing to pay more for products based on vague information, he continued. “How can we in the flooring industry help people navigate through conflicting information to recognize the value in products we supply? By keeping it simple. Provide fact-based information to demystify the differences among flooring products and processes.”

Farabee feels the category as a whole has “actually not done enough to promote the legitimate green story of laminate. The average consumer is generally not aware that laminate flooring is a product constructed of recycled materials, supplemented by only highly sustainable lumber, and that this type of flooring is reusable.”

Being green has become an increasingly important aspect of the flooring industry. “We communicate our green story throughout all of our merchandising vehicles— traditional and non-traditional—so that consumers will interact with the Quick•Step environmental message throughout their entire shopping experience.”

Shaw’s Erickson feels the category can do more to promote and talk about being green, adding continuing to educate our customer is not just a good thing but “is very important as we move forward.”

Dearing thinks the association’s members, which make up a greater majority of category leaders, have “absolutely not overstepped or overstated green and noted the ANSI certification “will be one more excellent reason for a consumer to look for the NALFA certification seal and for the dealer and distributor to have trust in a NALFA-certified product.”