Sustainable Timber Wood Flooring
Wood flooring is our only renewable choice for floors. Plastic is environmentally unfriendly coming from fossil fuels, concrete and other forms of flooring damage our environment with the energy required for their production.
Wood is a natural product that grows in abundance. England was once covered by forest and even though we cut most of it down our forefathers had the good sense to replant large forests although we do not now get a lot of our flooring from our own resources in the UK. Most of our Oak flooring now comes from Europe, the extensive forests of Russia, especially Siberia and North America.
All these countries have a programme of replanting and maintaining responsibly managed forests working with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or other organisations to ensure we plant more trees that we cut down.
Carbon Footprints
The production of Wood Flooring uses less energy in its processing than any other construction material. For example it takes 5 times more energy to produce 1 ton of cement, 24 times for 1 ton of steel, and 126 times for 1 ton of aluminum. Young trees absorb more carbon dioxide than mature trees so it makes sense to harvest our older trees and plant two new ones for every one felled.
This is why we are members of the Timber Trade Federation and have a FSC chain of custody certificate.
- Engineered floors do not move like sold wood floors
- We can produce 4 times as much engineered floors compared to solid oak floors
- Engineered Flooring can be used with underfloor heating
- The plywood base is made up of layers of birch and sometimes with a mix of popular, both fast growing trees that are in abundance, and these trees are replaced helping to reduce our carbon footprint.
Our Wood Floors gain Top Marks from WWF
Here at the Solid Wood Flooring Company, we are delighted to have been awarded top marks from WWF UK for our sustainable wood sourcing efforts and environmental policies.
The WWF’s Timber scorecard sees companies rated for performance on using sustainable timber and timber products.
To raise awareness of the importance in tackling this agenda, and securing timber and timber products from responsible sources, the WWF are measuring the progress of timber and timber product buyers in the UK on sustainable sourcing.
The business community can play a vital role in ensuring forest resources are well-managed. Sustainable forest management can help redress some of the most severe problems affecting forests, such as deforestation. The use of recycled and reclaimed timber and wood fibres also makes a major contribution to consuming more wisely – and equitably, now and in the future.
We were awarded top marks of 3 trees – (a apt rating marker!)
By gaining three trees, the WWF found that The Solid Wood Flooring Company responded well to almost all of the requests WWF made regarding the purchasing of timber and timber products. We have made public commitments to using FSC certified and recycled timber and timber products, and to EUTR compliance, and have set up policies and control systems. The WWF’s found we report quantities openly and accurately and have a good understanding of the source of all our timber and timber products.
We are sourcing over 70% certified material, with high proportions of FSC certified and recycled timber and timber products. The Solid Wood Flooring Company are showing our competitors that it is possible to act responsibly when it comes to forest trade – but even we will need to find ways to do more to fulfil our targets by 2020.
We are delighted with the findings and are proud to support the WWF’s Save the Forests Campaign.
For more information on our Sustainability processes, FSC, PEFC and WWF Certifications, please visit our Technical Library
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