The only way forward

As part of a series, flooring asked carpet, vinyl and wood flooring manufacturers, why it is important to consider the environment and how the changes they are making will affect the way their business is run, as well as the way the flooring industry works as a whole. This is what they said:

At a time when the environment has been top of everyone’s agenda, providing a strong selling point for many companies as customers strive to reduce their carbon footprint, suddenly, there is speculation to whether we are all worrying a little too much about carbon emissions.

A controversial documentary on channel four sparked a national debate into the causes and effects of climate change with The Independent casting doubt over channel four’s figures and scientists taking polarised views as to the human responsibility for global warming.

It seems the debate will rumble on for the foreseeable future as more evidence is collected on each side of the fence. One thing that can be agreed on however, is that landfill space is running out, and therefore waste will have to be re-used, recycled or put somewhere else.

Flooring manufacturers are seemingly un-phased by the debate, and are taking a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach to environmental issues. Carpet is a difficult material to judge on sustainability. As with all floor coverings there is every stage of manufacture to consider as well as recyclability and the various components of carpet; the backing, adhesive, underlay and choice of yarn. However, more and more carpet companies are claiming levels of sustainability to rival many of the ‘natural’ flooring options such as rubber and cork.

Blake Bower, strategic dev-elopment manager at Interface FLOR, thinks sustainability is all about context. "It isn’t possible to say that one material or one product is sustainable. We need to think about how that product is being used and what it’s being used for as well," he said.

"It is not always sensible to make direct comparisons between flooring types. Sometimes carpets are simply a better choice due to acoustic requirements, for example. We need to concern ourselves with understanding the relative impact of our carpet tile products as compared to more conventional carpet products. For example, carpet tiles and, in particular, random designed products for non-directional installation such as Entropy or Straightforward, result in significantly less waste."

Sister company, Bentley Prince Street has similar policies to InterfaceFLOR. Trudy Hart, business development manager at Bentley Prince said: "In looking at carpets as a sustainable flooring option, it’s important to look beyond just the recycled content in the carpet and examine all aspects of how the carpet is manufactured. For example, while Bentley Prince Street has more than 29 carpet products that contain recycled content, we also have made it a corporate priority to integrate sustainability in all aspects of our company – from manufacturing to products to distribution."

All the companies in the InterfaceFLOR group are striving to hit a zero carbon emissions promise by 2020. This seems like a tall order but Trudy is convinced the company can reach its targets. She said: "Mission Zero is about reaching the carrying capacity of our global society, living in harmony with nature. In some cases it is absolute zero, and in other cases it is not. It is about reaching a balance within the system, reducing our consumption of virgin/nonrenewable materials and replacing them with recycled and rapidly renewable feedstocks. Disconnecting from the oil well as an exclusive source of energy and reducing our energy consumption to an absolute minimum.

Says Trudy: "It also involves identifying the most benign chemical alternatives for product manufacture and finding ways to minimize our footprint through resource efficient transportation."

Other carpet manufacturers are also raising the bar on sustainability, in 2005 Antron carpet fibre was the first carpet fibre manufacturer to be awarded an Environmental Profile by BRE Certification. The certification process for Environmental Profiles identifies and assesses the environmental effects of building materials throughout their entire life cycle, including extraction, processing, construction, use and maintenance, and their eventual demolition and disposal.

With reference to recycling, some companies are going even further than just recycling their own products. Mohawk, parent company of Lees Carpet, recycle 17 billion plastic bottles every year to make the yarn in its polyester carpets. Tony Mauriello, vice president of Mohawk Europe, said: "During the manufacturing process we have taken several steps to become more sustainable, we closely monitor the emissions produced, we are using fewer raw materials and have reduced energy consumption by 10%. We also have a programme to recycle fibre waste from the manufacture of the carpets and turn that back into new yarn. "As an organisation we strive to improve our sustainability and we have recently launched a new product which is 100% recyclable. Sustainability is a number one priority for us and we aim to put this into practice across the board."

So many flooring companies are taking a strong stance on environmental issues that it is becoming unusual to see a manufacturer without a sustainability manifesto. While this is great news for the environment as a whole, it can also be confusing to contractors and specifiers looking for the best environmental flooring option. If everyone is making big promises it can be difficult to tell which are realistic and making the most long-term difference.

It seems that despite the controversy over carbon emissions and the true effect they will have on our environment, flooring businesses are united in their quest for sustainable processes that use less natural resources.

It is difficult to define sustainability in a business, as we have discussed, there are many implications to consider. Dr Kristian Steele, group leader of the materials team at the Building Research Establishment (BRE), explains there is no one answer to sustainability, but pin points the three main factors to consider.

"Sustainability is about the economical, social and environmental effects a company has and if a business wants to become more sustainable it needs to consider its impact on these three things. If the business is just addressing its environmental impact and ignoring its social impact on the local community then it is not sustainable," he said. Gerflor is a manufacturing company that has been given an A rating from BRE for its Mipolam range. Hazel Cook, contract marketing manager for Gerflor, puts great emphasis on sustainability across the Gerflor range of vinyl floor coverings. She said: "We take a lot of time and effort in using life cycle analysis and other management tools to make sure we drive out waste, improve our recyclability and drive down the use of water and energy.

"Vinyl itself is very efficient to manufacture, it’s unlike other plastics which can consume more energy to manufacture. Most people don’t actually realise that 50% of vinyl is actually salt, they always focus on the oil, but forget that in terms of the flooring product only 25% is actually oil.

"There are other products from seemingly natural materials, for example linoleum, which is made from wood flower and various other chemicals. Because it has a high percentage of wood flower people think it’s more sustainable and natural, but in fact, because of the processes involved in manufacturing linoleum, its actually far more consuming of oil than vinyl."

Taking into account the raw materials of a product is just one element of sustainability. Some flooring companies are also offering zero carbon footprint policies. For timber suppliers this could mean a system of tree planting in relation to the rate of logging. Barlinek natural floors, distributed by Floorwise, have FSC accreditation, a guarantee that the timber is sourced from carefully managed forests. The company has took this a step further however, by having a forestry policy that ensures a new tree is also planted for every pack of wood flooring they sell.

While offsetting carbon emissions is a step in the right direction however, Dr Steele believes it is not the answer to the issue as a whole. He said: "Business by its very nature will consume, in producing a product or service you will always need energy, you will always need to take materials, so in that respect a business can never be carbon neutral. Becoming carbon neutral is based on the premises of off setting carbon emissions and the science behind that is still developing. If companies are setting themselves targets to be able to do that, then I’m sure they will meet their targets but whether that is meaningful is another matter.
"The UK could offset all its carbon emissions simply by purchasing forestland and planting trees, and it could do that very economically, you are taking tens of millions of pounds. So why don’t we just offset, and carry on business as usual? – Because that’s not the answer." Most businesses are realising that there is also a moral responsibility to engage in this debate and make plans towards sustaining their resources. Cook said: "I think there is a moral responsibility for every manufacturer to depend less on the planets natural resources, it makes commercial sense as well as moral sense. There is a great amount of controversy about green house gases and their effect on the environment, but I think when the evidence is weighed up it is in every bodies best interest to utilise resources to the best of their ability."

Dr Steele sees responsibility also in the hands of the government. He said: "The Government needs to be a leader, through it’s policies, through demanding that businesses set themselves targets for becoming sustainable. It should be specifying and purchasing products and services that only come from sustainable activity or activities that are striving to be sustainable."
In the future sustainability will not be an option, it will be a way of life. While many businesses have already realised this, there will always be further to go as technology improves and the science develops to make the issue clearer.

Dr Steele said: "The industry is moving fairly rapidly, but there is never an end point to this. I think the industry will make huge strides in the next ten years, but beyond that more work will be necessary. "If businesses are not sustainable, they are not going to be here in the future, simple as that."