Green Flooring

When we Think Green we normally don’t think of our homes’ flooring. There are flooring materials that contribute to the green functioning home, but how does a consumer know they are installing a green flooring product. Exactly what are the criteria?

Part of the beauty of this home’s interior is the flooring. Flooring is an important element in any home’s interior design, but today, many homeowners are looking further than just the appearance. They are looking at the long term consideration of the environment.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Respect.

The World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) teamed up with Designing Spaces to produce a segment on green, environmentally friendly floors. It’s a great introduction to the concept of green flooring and to some of the choices available to eco-friendly homeowners. See the video segment above.

What is “Green?”

For many of us, awareness of our individual impact on the life of our planet is just coming into focus. Recent initiatives by local utility companies, local builders and local and national governmental agencies have served to heighten awareness of every human being’s impact on the global environment. “Greening” our homes is a wonderful investment. The impact can be felt immediately within our own families and what’s good for us is good for our planet and future generations.

Going green, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, means looking at these factors when building or remodeling our homes:

  • Energy savings
  • Water efficiency
  • CO2 emissions reduction
  • Improved indoor environmental quality
  • Stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Saving energy may mean choosing a natural flooring that requires little energy to produce; buying locally so that transportation energy is minimal; choosing flooring with no or low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions because they can contribute to health problems; or choosing flooring that is made from renewable resources.

Every little step counts. And rest assured there are many flooring choices that will contribute to the notion of leaving our planet just as beautiful as it was when we arrived, so that our children and our children’s children can enjoy it as much as we did.

World Floor Covering Association and “Designing Spaces” Provide Tips on Creating Eco-Friendly Living Spaces

Ever wonder what makes a product “green”?

Get all of the answers you need and more by tuning into The Learning Channel’s Designing Spaces cable program which features the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) in a segment on green, environmentally friendly floors. You’ll get an overview of every kind of eco-friendly flooring on the market from carpets made of corn sugar to bamboo area rugs. And, you can learn about what makes a product environmentally friendly as well as the carbon “footprint” a product leaves from the time and place it is sourced to final installation.