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The Absolute Collection by Johnson Tiles has now expanded to include 6000 products and features 143 ranges, with sizes varying from 100x100mm up to 3000x1000mm
Ecologik from Craven Dunnill’s Renaissance Collection is manufactured using recycled ceramic material
Being a grass, as opposed to timber,
gives bamboo the edge as not only a building product, but also as a sustainable resource: wood takes approximately 15-20 years to reach maturity, whereas the non- harmful harvesting of bamboo takes a mere 3 to 5 years.
Other woods are also being recognised as
sustainable alternatives to hardwood flooring, such as coconut palm. UK-based company Ecopalm sources timber from Asian coconut plantations using the waste material to manufacture their flooring. “Coconut palm trees are grown for their fruit and are an abundant species. We only use plantation- grown timber that has been felled due to the end of the fruit bearing lifespan of the tree,” explains Kevin Speck of Ecopalm.
NATURAL RUBBER Whilst wood is always a popular flooring option, the question of sustainability has seen many other materials gaining in popularity. One such material is natural rubber and whilst many specifiers believe that most rubber flooring on the market is natural, most of it is in fact synthetic and made from a petrochemical by-product. With sustainability high on the design agenda, rubber flooring manufacturer Dalsouple made the decision to improve the environmental profile of its products by going back to nature with the introduction of DalNaturel, a product that boasts over 90 per cent natural ingredients. Natural rubber is a wholly renewable
raw material. It is easy to recycle many times over, is long-lasting and is low in toxicity. The benefits it offers as flooring are myriad including the fact that it is tough, anti-slip and burn resistant, it feels soft and warm underfoot and has excellent noise absorption properties, is dust free, hygienic and easy to maintain.
RECYCLED CONTENT The use of recycled content in manufacturing has also gained ground in recent years not only due to the
environmental benefits, but also because, in most cases, it makes sound business sense. For example, laminate flooring manufacturer Pergo has an environmental policy whereby 80 per cent of the product’s content consists of wood surplus from suppliers in the wood industry.
Some ceramic tile manufacturers are
also incorporating recycled content into the production process. Johnson Tiles of Stoke- on-Trent in the UK recycle 20,000 tonnes of ceramic waste from their own production processes and those of 14 other local ceramic manufacturers each year. The ceramic waste, which includes plates,
cups and saucers, is ground to a suitable size and added to standard ceramic materials to create the tile body. The recycled materials comprise on average 25 per cent of the raw material but can be as high as 36 per cent. Reusing this much ceramic waste annually saves approximately 24,000 cubic metres of landfill. Craven Dunnill has also grasped the
sustainable opportunities. Ecologik from its Renaissance Collection is an attractive range of 450 x 450mm ceramic floor tiles made by Ergon in Italy. Ergon has adopted a green manufacturing policy where the emphasis is on maximum energy savings, minimal environmental emissions as well as the recycling of processed materials: 92 per cent of the waste heat produced in the co- generation plant is re-used in other parts of the process and 40 per cent of the material is recycled.
Roca has also produced some high
quality recycled products with Top Green being its most eco-sensitive range to date. Incorporating 80 per cent pre-consumer recycled material, the Top Green collection will contribute to any building’s pursuit of LEED certification. Roca also takes sustainability into account during the manufacturing process by generating all the energy that is required and reusing water and heat wherever possible. Ceramic tiles that do not meet its stringent testing requirements are donated
Roca’s Green Urban collection has an ecological concrete stone finish with outstanding technical performance and is produced with 80 per cent recycled pre-consumer material
Pergo’s laminate flooring in Yacht Oak is great for high-wear public environments or home environments with high wear
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