LEED Carpet and Eco Friendly Manufacturing

If you are in the commercial interiors business the question is asked regularly about LEED carpet and eco friendly manufacturing and what the differences are between products and processes. This can be a very challenging question to research because there are many schools of thought on this and a diversity of manufacturing systems using various raw and recycled materials can all be called LEED carpets. 

We should first note that LEED carpets is a term that really means materials that can earn LEED credits and those that are environmentally friendly as there really is no such thing as a LEED carpet.  Architects and designers can select products that may earn LEED points toward satisfying the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® Green Building Rating System™. Points may be earned in the materials and resources section for the recycled content credit 4.2 and 4.2 as well as the local and regional materials points.  This has to do with products manufactured within a 500 mile distance to the ship to and installation site. 

Under the LEED Indoor Environmental Quality, points may be given for Low Emitting Materials Credit 4.3 and people thinking beyond the LEED carpet ideology and deeper into the issue of what is really green carpet would look for products that are installed using environmentally friendly, low off gassing adhesives as well as peel and stick systems.  Some manufacturers can help with an innovation point for a variety of reasons which should be requested by each manufacturer when specifying a project to see if there is anything that may qualify but it should always be remembered that the term LEED carpet is really just a phrase designed to find eco friendly green carpets.

Another thing to review is if a material meets the NSF 140 standards. NFS 140 is the first multi-attribute American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for environmentally preferable building materials in the construction industry. The industry group developed this standard to Increase the economic value of sustainable carpet throughout the supply chain as well as provide information to help specifiers sort out information on sustainable attributes of LEED carpet. 

While the commercial carpet industry has lead the way for eco friendly manufacturing and LEED carpet specifications there is still a lot of cleaning up that needs to be done in terms of marketing. One way to level the playing field would be for all manufacturers to adhere to the Federal Trade Commissions marketing guidelines that require a clear set of rules for the marketing of environmental claims. This would stop some of the worst greenwashing that currently permeates the industry when it comes to LEED carpets and eco friendly manufacturing claims. It would also even things up if all manufacturers used the same third party certification company and stays far away from using a certification company or methodology that has high profile consultants who are on or who have ever been on the payroll as this certainly could be seen as a conflict of interest.

Speaking of eco friendly manufacturing it should be noted that eco friendly manufacturing exists using all kinds of materials to include PVC and non PVC substances as well as processes that include a host of other compounds. Manufacturers that are ISO 14001 certified also should be given a special consideration due to the diligence and scrutiny that these manufacturers undergo throughout the process of validation.

One other note of clarification regarding LEED carpet is the term cradle to cradle. Cradle to cradle is really a term that means a manufacturer is responsible for the products they make from creation to the end of their useful life and that they have the facilities and ability to recycle the product back into itself again infinitely. This term is not owned by any one manufacturer but by those that can deliver on this promise and prove it through third party certification by a truly independent company when meeting FTC guidelines.  Hopefully this helps when looking at LEED carpets and trying to better understand eco friendly manufacturing.

Green Carpet Tile And Sustainable Flooring Options

It is a very good thing that everyone is talking about green carpet and green carpet tiles these days. All the discussion hopefully means that end users, architects, and designers are more interested about what types of materials are going into commercial spaces and reviewing products to see if they are generally sustainable. This is a positive trend that has developed over the last decade and it means that eco flooring is becoming more important to everyone.

There are many types of quality products on the market today that would qualify for green carpets each having various attributes of environmentally friendly material. Many of these meet the CRI Green Label Plus program and have low VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), some qualify for the California Platinum status or help with LEED points and others break ground for their material composition as well as their longevity and performance in the field.

Recently I have heard a few architects say that green carpet tiles are the most sustainable flooring materials available and that statement warrants a closer look at these perceptions.  Carpet tiles have been used for years in commercial areas instead of broadloom carpets because individual tiles can be replaced in worn or damaged areas which seems to be a more sustainable approach.  Additionally, some of the better carpet tile manufacturers are offering 100% recycled content backing materials as well as post and pre-consumer recycled face fibers which are very positive developments.

Additionally, some of these products are made by manufacturers who use bio based fuels and renewable energy sources to power parts of their operations, they operate under ISO 14001 guidelines and adhere to NSF-140 product standards and third party certification.  Add to this the fact that a couple companies can recycle these products back into new green carpet tiles indefinitely and it makes for a very sound argument that green carpet tile is the most sustainable soft surface flooring material available.

Now consider the other side of the proverbial green carpet coin.  Carpet tiles usually require significantly more raw material than broadloom or woven carpets.  It is usually well over 30%+ by weight more which means it takes much more materials to make carpet tile. While a couple manufacturers in the commercial market today have open architecture environmental recycling facilities with the ability to recycle their own tiles and other manufacturers products, the fact remains that the large majority of used tiles are either incinerated or dumped into landfills.

In Europe alone over seventy million kilos of tiles are disposed of each year, and while American stats are not available, it is estimated that it is even more so we are talking significant volume. It seems ironic that when people replace carpet tiles they usually throw them away so their designed functionality actually promotes more material being sent into the landfill. What this means the vast majority of these heavier weight products that require more materials to make are going into landfills and that is something to consider when looking for a green carpet.

Recently a building owner asked me if it was more sustainable to buy a carpet tile with all the green attributes the manufacturer had represented or a hybrid resilient cushion flooring material that did not have as much recycled content material but that has been shown to last for over 35 years in the market and can be fully recycled at the end of its useful life.  That is a great question by an informed owner and is the cause of this article.

While green carpet tile can offer users and architects perhaps the best specification on paper for environmentally friendly materials it is the real world where sustainability must also be evaluated. To ignore a proven product that lasts for over 35 years under the most extreme conditions because it does not have recycled content fiber seems short sited and worth another look when considering the true meaning of green carpet.