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Flooring Environmental Credentials
Flooring Environmental Credentials
About:
Alan Best (AB)
- “Brian you are a senior architect and specifier who is very active in the field of green construction and education so presumably you are key target for EcoBuild exhibitors.
- How do you think that the architect and procurement community perceives the value of the EcoBuild Exhibition?”
Brian Murphy( BM)
- “Well EcoBuild was a totally eco event which has become more commercialised
- It is now really an eco show alongside two others.
- It is, in effect, Interbuild without the Tonka Toys.
- As it is now the only show in town companies just have to be there and the main requirement is for them to present a sustainability story.
- Most companies simply seem to enhance their existing promotional materials with some eco spin.
- Many stories do not have credible endorsements and do not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
- They are in reality green washing and the architect community has become generally skeptical of eco claims as a result.
- This is unfair to those companies who are making real strides in the right direction and occasionally there are some interesting new products.
- However you have to be pretty flexible in your definition of the term ‘Eco’ to find 10 new ‘standout products’ each year.
- I feel that the floor layout concentrates on conventional building and discourages visits to the more innovative technology stands.
- I expressed these concerns to the floor manager so I will be interested to see if and how things change.
AB
- “What do you look for when specifying a flooring product and how much flexibility does a specifier actually have when price is normally a key issue?”
BM
- Flooring is a finish and as such usually falls outside of ‘competent construction’ priorities.
- Flooring however has the potential to affect the performance of the external envelop and to modify the thermal mass and Indoor Air Quality.
- I look firstly for the necessary properties to achieve competent construction.
- I am at the same time concerned to create healthy buildings.
- I therefore check for any toxic content.
- I look for recycled content end of life take back schemes for recycling.
- I prefer the use of natural raw materials and innovative materials such as bio yarns and starch based adhesives.
- However I would really like to see EPD’s so that we can compare all of the impacts of products whether natural or synthetic.
- We need to understand all of the impacts from cradle to grave and to develop a common language in order to discuss them.
- I am keen to see more use of voluntary eco labels
- We are governed by cost planning and value engineering which are only posh words for cost cutting wherever possible.
- So even if I specify a particular product there is something like a one in three chance that somebody in the chain will substitute it for a cheaper alternative.
AB
- You mention that you try to ensure that there is evidence that products have no toxic content.
- How do you do this?
BM
- With difficulty.
- Manufacturers constantly invent new chemical concoctions to reduce costs and maintain performance.
- Safety Data Sheets are often vague or inaccurate with regard to chemical content.
- This falls under the REACH Regulations which should improve things greatly if they don’t get watered down.
- This will take a few years to come fully into force.
- EPD’s will help but they too are a little weak on toxicity.
- I learn most from my work with experts in the field of Life Cycle Assessment.
- I also look to REACH listings of Substances of Very High Concern and also to other lists such as the SIN list for chemicals that may be withdrawn in time.
- There are a fair few that appear in flooring and textile products.
AB
- “What do you think are the key things for flooring companies to be focusing on to help architects differentiate green from not so green products?”
BM
- Well I think that they should produce EPD,s sooner rather than later.
- They should rein in the marketing people a little so that eco claims are more considered.
- I would encourage those with genuine green claims to adopt eco labels more.
- These are more common in Europe and are of considerable help in supporting a manufacturer’s eco claims.
- Companies should actively adopt hazardous chemicals management policies so that they are ahead of REACH and pro actively substituting chemicals of concern.
- This is in their commercial interest as well as the end user’s.
- I predict that eventually low carbon material choices will become a priority and, as a result, renewable tree and plant based materials will become more popular.
AB
- “How important is recycled content/recyclability in your Resource Efficiency considerations?”
BM
- Manufacturers used to shy away from proclaiming recycled content for fear that products would be labeled ‘inferior.’
- These days recycled content is seen as desirable.
- We do need to understand more about the environmental impacts of recycling and even substitution with natural content before we may fully judge the benefits.
- Some recycling can be expensive and chemically and energy intensive and may generate toxic waste and emissions
- For example recycled synthetic content, or even natural content, may require a synthetic binder such as formaldehyde to make it perform e.g. chipboard which can raise VOC and indoor air quality issues
- Sustainable and efficient use of resources is a much more than recycling alone.
- Most designers are reliant upon knowledge gained up to 30 years ago’ when resource efficiency was not even on the syllabus.
- We need to consider avoidance of waste through design and design for disassembly and recycling.
- Cradle to cradle design and the principles of green engineering provide excellent templates which are being picked up gradually by industry.
AB
- As you say flooring installations create a variety of waste and I know that you are an advocate of Site Waste Management Planning (SWMP).
- How widely are these being used in construction generally and have there been improvements as a result?”
BM
- Well the creation of 109 million tones/annum of construction waste seems relentless and such regulations as there are do not seem to be helping.
- There is little in the way of education on Site Waste Management Plans (SWMP) for architects through RIBA and no national Interior Design syllabus covering the topic.
- Until this situation improves the status quo is likely to continue.
- On the positive side the Code for Sustainable Homes is helping to drive SWMP but alas BREEAM tends to leave this to regulations to control which is simply not happening.
- The industry is made up of small businesses and the threshold for SWMP take up was set too high for most of them at £200k to £300k
- The flooring industry has a big contribution to make in this area and I hope to be working with architects and flooring contractors to assist them in their efforts.
- For example I have developed a tool which I have named WasteCost®Floor that calculates predictable flooring waste and generates reports for designers.
- It is important that this becomes a design consideration as by the time the flooring contractor sees a specification there is little they can do to minimize waste.
Brian Murphy is an architect by training, specifier and lecturer specialising in green construction
https://greenbuildingencyclopaedia.uk
Alan Best is a Sustainability Consultant who specialises in Environmental Certification, substitution of hazardous chemicals and waste reduction. Alan represents Shaw Industries Inc on the Flooring Sustainability Partnership and other international bodies.
http://www.alanbestsustainability.com
First published in Contract Flooring Journal 2013
© GBE NGS ASWS BrianMurphy
aka BrianSpecMan & Alan Best
2nd January 2013 – 13th August 2016
Flooring Environmental Credentials
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© GBE NGS ASWS BrianMurphy
aka BrianSpecMan
13th August 2016
