Many of you may have seen Sir David Attenborough’s new documentary film on Netflix, entitled “A Life on Our Planet”. This is a powerful and timely ‘witness statement’ from Sir David; we do need to make changes now to save ourselves and the planet for future generations. 

A section of the documentary dealt with the harrowing destruction of the rain forests and the impact that it is having on the environment. We’re in a wonderful period of awakening wherein many people are now questioning the sourcing and manufacturing habits from the companies they purchase from. We at The Solid Wood Flooring Company strongly encourage this as it can only lead to greater understanding from consumers and route out the companies who aren’t practicing responsible sourcing or worse, placing illegal products on the marketplace.
 
Please see below some of the steps we take to ensure our wood floors are responsibly sourced and minimise our environmental impact:
 
1 – We do not harvest any material from rain forests.

2 – We are FSC® (Forest Stewardship Commission) certified and PEFC™ (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certified. These are two of the largest and well-known authorities on sustainable forestry in the world.

3 – All the materials that are sourced for our products from well-managed, sustainable forests. All our Oak and Maple flooring comes from either FSC® or PEFC certified forests with a complete chain of custody.

4 – We use older trees for our material, these absorb less Co2 than younger trees.  Therefore, this cycle of allowing a proper growing cycle and replenishing with new trees is significantly better for the environment.

5 – We complete a bi-annual internal audit of our FSC® or PEFC certified products and submit to an annual external audit by a Nepcon authorised auditor.  This ensures conformity, accuracy and allows us to continually improve our methodology. 

6 – We submit a selection of our products for further testing to prove our supply chain is producing according to our expectations. These tests include Isotope testing for proof of origin, emissions testing for proof of environmental impact as well as end-user focused testing such as slip tests etc…

7 – We stock engineered boards in part to the general market preference for engineered boards (as they are more adaptable and stable compared to solid wood); but also because it takes around x5 times as much hardwood (i.e. Oak/Walnut etc…) to make a solid board.  This would increase our hardwood consumption 5-fold; the benefit of using engineered or solid is obvious.

8 – We’ve been awarded 3-Trees by WWF® the highest award for sustainable sourcing practices.

 
The above is a simple overview of what we as a company do to promote sustainable timber practices.  We are very aware of the impact of illegal and unsustainable logging; we do everything possible to eliminate any dealings with such businesses or material. 

For more specific information please see the following on our site:
• https://www.thesolidwoodflooringcompany.com/pages/sustainable-timber-flooring
• https://www.thesolidwoodflooringcompany.com/pages/certification-fsc-pefc-and-rrp
• https://www.thesolidwoodflooringcompany.com/pages/architects-designers

Try it for yourself! FREE Samples of our sustainable wood flooring are available here!