With all the talk about the green movement one could wonder; how green or ecology minded will my decision make to buy a flooring product that is a good choice for protecting our environment? I came up with this article idea on the way to work and did not quite know how to go about presenting it ...but here goes. Keep in mind I do not have all the exact details and actual facts, but it is something to consider.
Sure you may be making a good choice buying some bamboo or cork flooring. After all both products are renewable to some extent. Bamboo grows extremely fast and can be replenished quickly by planting more. Depending on who you talk to the consensus for bamboo from seedling to harvesting is 5-7 years. Cork itself comes from the bark of the Mediterranean cork oak tree and is harvested every 10 years or so. It doesn't harm the trees and does grow back.
What many people do not understand with the green movement is we can be ecological conscious but one major aspect is rarely considered. It takes fuel to transport your green goods. Most of the green type hardwood and cork flooring products are transported by large cargo ships from distant areas. They use an enormous amount of fuel and low grade highly pollutant stuff at that.
What's a person to do? Find some dilethian (Star Trek power source) crystals would be my guess, but I don't think they're available in this century. Upon thinking a bit deeper into the subject I suppose the cleanest type of renewable hardwood flooring would be trees in your backyard, but you'll have to cut them down the old fashioned way because firing up that chain saw will not help the cause.
Then you'll have to get it milled. If you're lucky to live near a hydro electric power plant this would be an option, providing the mill uses their power. But how are you going to get it home? Hook up the team of oxen? Could be the investment of the future..hehe.
How about those folks that are green to the gills but decide it's time to take that cruise around the world? No helping there! Sure they may have built the greenest home on the planet, but...
EDIT: this is getting off track. I will try more later.
1 comments:
Local flooring manufacturers that use local native species and use water based finishes are your best bet. Also, look to see what the manufacturer does with the waste. Some will actually make use of every last crumb of wood. That's what we at www.treehuggerwoodfloors.com do. We heat our homes and water with the waste created milling and forming the wood floors. Yes, we use electricity and gas, but it is a fraction of that used to produce the flooring found in most stores.
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