Which flooring product is more sustainable vinyl, linoleum or rubber?
The truth of the matter is that no material is 100% sustainable, they all have their own environmental challenges. It is now universally accepted that the only way to compare the environmental impact of competing materials such as flooring is life cycle assessment. This method of assessing environmental impact considers the whole life cycle of a product from the manufacture or extraction of raw materials that go into making the product to its eventual disposal at end of life. This is the basis for the environmental profiling scheme used with BREEAM in the UK. Life cycle analysis including the one used in BRE’s Green Guide to Specification and the study set up by the European Commission have found, that when manufactured responsibly and viewed over their entire life cycle, PVC based floor coverings perform no better or worse than competing materials. With this in mind, specifiers can be sure that the installation of safety flooring will reduce the potential for slip and provide a high d
