Q: I want to replace my carpet with something sustainable and I love the look of hardwood. What should I look for to find environmentally friendly flooring?
A: Replacing worn-out carpet with sustainable flooring can be a great, renewable choice. You have a range of options, including wood, bamboo and cork. If you’ve got your heart set on hardwood floors — or other types of wood building products such as wall paneling, for that matter — keep in mind that not all wood is good for the environment. How green it is depends on the source of the wood.
Since wood comes from trees, it has the potential to be an
infinitely renewable resource. Wood takes very little energy to make; the sun
does most of the work, as opposed to other common building materials such as
concrete. Furthermore, wood products can help slow the effects of climate
change due to their ability to reduce the amount of heat-trapping carbon
dioxide in the air. They have the unique property of being a “carbon sink,”
meaning that for the lifetime of the wood product, carbon is tied up in the
structure of the material, removing it from the atmosphere for a time.
With this in mind, the key to finding the most sustainably
produced wood is determining the source of the wood. Poor forest management and
deforestation are responsible for as much as 18% of the planet’s greenhouse gas
emissions. Over the years, however, forest management in North America has
greatly improved, and our forests are now considered to be among the best
managed in the world. This means that wood products with a North American
origin are generally thought to be safe, although not all sources — even in
North America — are totally sustainable. Additionally, many wood products sold
in the U.S. market come from overseas, where many forests are poorly managed.
Which leads us to what an environmentally conscious consumer
should know to make sure that the wood products they buy come from a
sustainable source. There are now third-party organizations whose purpose is to
certify forests that are sustainably managed, and to identify the products that
are made from these eco-friendly sources.
These organizations look for some key forest management
traits, such as:
• Replacing every tree cut down with two or more saplings
• Protecting stands of old growth, which have special
conservation value
• Giving special attention to preserving water quality
in streams and rivers.
When forests are managed properly, they can continue on in
perpetuity, undiminished in their vital role as the planet’s most important
force against greenhouse gas emissions.
The main certifications American consumers are likely to
encounter are from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry
Initiative (SFI) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification
(PEFC). Eco-conscious individuals should look for wood products certified by
one of these organizations, and then vote with their wallets. If you have a
hard time finding certified wood products, voice your concerns to suppliers
about your environmental values, which will in turn send signals up the supply
chain that consumers care about the ecological impacts of the products they
buy.
Rod Gray is the president and chief sustainability officer for CRAFT Artisan Wood Floors, a member of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS). If you have a home improvement, remodeling or residential homebuilding question you’d like answered by one of the MBAKS’s more than 2,700 members, write to [email protected].
