Wood flooring is the only flooring option available that is completely sustainable, and with new guidelines promoting responsible forest management, wood flooring has become the flooring option of choice among many eco-friendly builders, architects, specifiers, designers and consumers.

Wood flooring is the most abundantly renewable flooring material available. Sustainable forest management makes it possible to harvest wood without any serious impact on the environment because trees are a renewable resource, which can be replaced time and time again.

Wood is produced in a factory (aka a forest) by a renewable source of energy called the sun. Nonrenewable building materials must be produced in man-made factories. This requires large inputs of fossil fuels resulting in high carbon dioxide emissions. In other words, all other possible flooring substitutes are more harmful to the environment. The answer to using environmentally friendly building options, then, is not to use less wood, but to grow more trees and to promote sustainable forests.

According to the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the average annual net growth for hardwood is greater than average annual removals. For every tree harvested for wood flooring, nearly two are planted in its place. In all, the standing hardwood volume has increased nearly 90% since 1953.

Forests are sustainable, making wood a sustainable resource and an obvious choice for environmentally conscious consumers. Learn more about the environmental benefits of wood flooring.

Source: National Wood Flooring Association