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 For-Ever-Green…
because it’s renewable
You bet we are a green industry!
By Carol Goodwin
Hardwood Floors
Regular or decaf? Paper or plastic? Wood floors are the easy
environmental choice in a nation divided over whether or not
to cut a Christmas tree that never would have been planted
except for that purpose. Today the United States has over
seventy percent of the forest cover that it had in the 1600s
(reference, Americans and Their Forests, by Michael Williams,
Cambridge University Press, 1989). Try some of the sales conversation
starters below with your customers and let us hear what works
for you.
Wood is wonderful! It is a renewable resource.
Most wood flooring comes from hardwood trees that have an
overall positive growth/removal rate. In the U.S. growth rates
easily exceed the removal rate. Three other types of readily
available environmental wood flooring choices, besides hardwoods,
include regional wood, reclaimed woods and wood that is certified
to come from a sustainable forest.
Mesquite is a good example of regional wood. Its use in flooring
stimulates the regional economy and uses a tree considered
by some to be a nuisance. Mesquite, often the target of chemical
eradication, yields a very hard and desirable wood floor.
The trees are somewhat smaller and so require some additional
labor to process, but the result is a handsome floor that
is beneficial to the environment at a reasonable value.
Reclaimed woods from old warehouse timbers,
river bottoms or even salvaged flooring are a natural for
environmental wood floors. This approach saves materials from
the wastestream and does not impact living trees. The wood
often is from trees no longer present to harvest or is available
in grain patterns only found in rare old large trees, adding
to the aesthetic and longevity qualities of this type of floor.
Heart Pine may be the most common reclaimed wood, but available
species include Oak, Chestnut, Maple, Redwood, Heart Cypress,
Hemlock, Poplar, Cherry, Beech, White Pine, Cedar, Doug Fir,
among others.
Certified wood first came about in the late
1980s from Smart Wood (www.smartwood.org), an offshoot of
the NY based Rain Forest Alliance. Smart Wood offered voluntary
certification by third parties that assess a forestry company’s
land management practices. Now there are dozens of lumber
suppliers who are certified by third parties to follow a ‘chain
of custody’ that proves the wood is from sustainably
managed forests. Arthur Blank, CEO of Home Depot, raised the
ante and lowered the stakes for wood floor manufacturers when
he stated in ‘Green at Work’ magazine’s
summer 2000 issue that “Certified wood makes good business
sense long term. We will bring this wood in so that it will
be transparent to the consumers and the price will not appear
to increase.” Look for more on this topic in an upcoming
issue of Hardwood Floors.
Wood is ‘clean’ green. Wood
production is much cleaner than its alternatives. Steel manufacturing
results in 40 times more harmful effluents and 3 times more
carbon dioxide emissions than the manufacture of wood. Concrete
releases large quantities of carbon dioxide during manufacture.
Wood sends less solid waste to the landfill than manufacturing
the same product in either steel or concrete. Finally, wood
is more energy efficient. The cellular structure of wood traps
air, giving it superior insulating properties. It takes 15
inches of concrete to equal the insulation qualities of one
inch of wood.
The ‘green black hole’ is gone.
The last finish manufacturer to have stores of products manufactured
before September 1999 (the effective date of the latest VOC--volatile
organic compound—regulation) reported in November 2000
that they are now fully compliant with current EPA regulations.
Typical healthy finish selections include water-based finishes,
urethane wood floor finishes and low toxicity, solvent-free
adhesives. Today there are many manufacturers that offer products
for those with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). MCS is
a condition not yet accepted by the majority of the medical
community, yet finish manufacturers have risen to meet their
needs. In addition to NWFA’s Buyers Guide, www.edcmag.com/buyersguide
lists some of the ‘environmental finish’ choices.
Real wood floors offer beauty for a lifetime
— or longer. People walk on wood floors every day as
old as our nation, for example, the floors in George Washington’s
Mount Vernon. Wood floors can be refinished instead of adding
to the landfill as happens with some other floor coverings.
You can change the entire look of a wood floor from time to
time with stains, paints and inlays. Our industry helps to
preserve what is already there so that others can enjoy it.
Maintaining wood floors has never been easier.
Whenever another woman tells me, “I think tile or carpet
might be easier to clean,” I recall waxing Mom’s
wood floors and scrubbing grout on my knees. Then I show them
my wood floor cleaning tools. With only a swivel mop and occasionally
some non-aerosol spray (no noxious chemicals to buy like in
carpet cleaning, marble polishing or tile refinishing) I can
clean the wood floor in less than half the time it takes to
vacuum, scrub or shampoo other floor coverings.
The ‘green wall’ is breaking down with
help from NWFA members. This is the term used to
describe the barrier to selling environmental products that
may cost a little more. We have to find ways to make the environment
pay for itself. Mullican Lumber’s supplier of stickers,
small wood sticks that separate wood for drying, employs horse
drawn power. Companies like 3M offer air filters that help
close the gap between standard HVAC systems and the more expensive
HEPA filters.
Our organization is charged with giving the wood floor consumer
confidence in their choice of floor coverings through training
and certification. Consumers who know that through NWFA members
they can have confidence in their installer and finisher to
protect their families’ safety by conserving the interior
environment.
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