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. How is this possible? 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 United States 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 from the standing inventory, 1.66 cubic feet is added. And while it is true that it can take 40-60 years for those trees to mature, since wood flooring lasts in excess of 100 years, the inventory will be available long before it is needed. In all, the standing hardwood volume currently is approximated at 328 billion cubic feet, an increase of nearly 90 percent since 1953. Clearly, forests are sustainable, making wood a sustainable resource, and an obvious choice for environmentally conscious consumers.
To provide more scientific data regarding the environmental benefits of hardwood flooring, the National Wood Flooring Association Industry Research Foundation conducted a Life Cycle Analysis of wood flooring in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin, in Madison. Two studies were conducted. One focused on solid hardwood flooring, and one focused on engineered wood flooring. The reports provide a detailed analysis of the impact wood flooring has on our environment, from a seedling in the forest, through its growth, to its harvest and manufacturer int`o both lumber and flooring, and finally, to its end-life.
The studies analyzed the environmental impact of hardwood flooring for harmful air emissions, water consumption, total primary energy consumption and product life expectancy. Wood flooring, and solid wood flooring in particular, compared favorably in each of these study areas to other flooring alternatives such as vinyl, linoleum and carpet. The final report shows that wood flooring has the least environmental impact of all other flooring options studied. In other words, the results were "good for wood."
Air emissions tests for solid wood flooring analyzed four substances that contribute to atmospheric warming and human respiratory ailments. These included carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and other unspecified particulates. Wood flooring had no emissions for methane, nitrogen oxide and other particulates, and minimal emissions for carbon dioxide. Water consumption was favorable for solid wood flooring as well. Water used for producing solid wood flooring was substantially less than that used to produce linoleum or carpet, and generally is limited to use in on-site boilers for heating the manufacturing facilities. Primary energy use reflects the collective energy inputs required in manufacturing. Again, wood was found to have the least amount of primary energy consumption of the materials studied.
Wood flooring also stacks up favorably when product service life is compared. Because hardwood floors can last hundreds of years, there are fewer replacement and associated production impacts. In addition, wood is the only flooring option analyzed that does not end up in a landfill after its service life. Much of it is recycled or used as a combustible fuel. In addition to these scientific findings, wood is a carbon neutral material. During the process of tree growth, trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen. Wood also has the additional benefit of storing carbon during its service life. This unique process makes wood a carbon neutral substance. All of this scientific data has encouraged many prominent green building initiatives to embrace wood as an environmentally friendly flooring alternative.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program is perhaps the most-recognized green building initiative in the United States. The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The Life Cycle Analysis provides the scientific data designers and builders need to gain points with LEED, as well as the National Association of Home Builders Model Green Home Building Guidelines, and the Green Building Initiative Green Globes program.
The NWFA also has partnered with the American Hardwood Export Council and the Hardwood Federation to address the issues associated with illegal logging throughout the world. The group lobbied the International Trade Commission to investigate illegal logging practices and their impact on the United States hardwood market. The ITC is an independent, nonpartisan, fact-finding federal agency. Their report provides an overview of the US markets for solid and engineered wood flooring, both unfinished and factory finished. The report also includes a description of the US industries for wood flooring and those of the principal countries that supply the US market; an examination of US trade patterns and the factors affecting trade patterns, including tariffs and other border measures; an analysis of the factors affecting the competitive position of US producers and the principal foreign suppliers to the US market; and the views of industry, homebuilders, importers, and other interested parties on developments in the supply of and the demand for wood flooring, including the effect of imports.
The bottom line is that the green movement presents a tremendous opportunity for those in the wood flooring business. Wood is the only flooring material that is totally sustainable and renewable, making it the obvious choice for the ecologically aware consumer. Therefore, it is our job to educate customers about the environmental benefits of wood flooring.
About the Author
Michael Martin is the CEO of the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), an international not-for-profit trade organization of more than 2,600 wood flooring companies working worldwide to educate consumers, architects, designers, and builders about the uses and benefits of wood flooring. The NWFA is located at 111 Chesterfield Industrial Blvd., Chesterfield, MO 63005, and can be contacted at 800.422.4556 (USA and Canada), 636-519-9663 (local and international), or at www.nwfa.org.
© Timber Design & Technology 2013
