Earth-friendly vinyl?

More than you might think

Laden with hard-to-pronounce chemicals such as polyvinylchloride (PVC), resilient floors appear to be anything but earth friendly. However, leading executives at today’s vinyl flooring mills are blending the latest advancements in chemistry and engineering to produce floors that are literally warranted for life — all without spilling a drop or cutting down a tree.

"None of our PVC touches the earth," said Hugh Pugsley, president, Amtico. "We use it all or we sell it for use as polymers to make benches. We don’t landfill a thing. We want to have the smallest environmental footprint we can."

Though concern for the environment is beginning to hold sway with consumers, industry executives say more practical matters such as cost savings and the safety of their own environment is sufficient motivation for achieving harmonious means of production.

"We’re sensitive to environmental issues regardless of where we manufacture but especially because all of our products are made right here," said Erica Hubbard, marketing manager for Florence, Ala.-based Nafco by Tarkett. "This is where all of our families, neighbors and friends live and work."

So how do they do it?

For starters, resilient flooring facilities don’t pop up randomly; their locations have been strategically chosen due to their proximity to both raw materials and end users.

"We acquire the raw materials for production close to the plant and thus save a ton of fuel," Hubbard said. "This translates into significant savings. Note how organic food advocates have been taken to task because much of their food has to travel long distances, gobbling up fuel just to get to market."

Though often self-conscious due to its chemical nature, the modern resilient flooring industry has adopted sound conservation processes such as closed-loop systems to recycle water utilized in the production process and pressurized air ducts to capture free-floating microparticles. What’s more, with each introduction vinyl flooring products and the process of installing them become healthier for the end user and environment.

"We use only water-based inks," said Mario Allard, director of vinyl product management at Domco. "In addition, our brand’s fiberglass-backed FiberFloor products require no glue for residential installation. And to top it off, because of its structure, it is 100 percent recyclable."

Other fiberglass-backed suppliers, such as Armstrong, IVC, Mannington and Tarkett, also expound the benefits of the product’s loose-lay capabilities, while Amtico recently launched a line of glueless luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) and planks that install much like a laminate floor.

"LVT as a category is expanding quickly," Pugsley said. "We wanted to have an LVT that we’re proud of. The problem isn’t with resilient floors; you buy them once and they stay clean and last a lifetime. The problem is the industry doesn’t know what to do with the glue when you rip an old floor up. The good news is the entire industry is moving more toward glueless floors."

The popularity of resilient flooring in the medical and education sectors is testament to both the category’s health and life cycle benefits, but adding further credence is the FloorScore certification program developed by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute and administered by Scientific Certification Systems, a third-party certification company that has deemed leading vinyl suppliers’ products to be both compliant with low-emission standards and eligible for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) points.

"Green building requirements strive for such goals as increased health and well being of occupants; better indoor air quality; lower operating costs; reduced maintenance; and longer product life," said Dominic Rice, vice president of product management, resilient, Armstrong. "By those standards resilient floor covering is perfect."