‘Cradle to cradle’ approach explained

How such pressures have increasingly seen introduced a new generation of flooring systems that not only incorporate a high recycled content, offer a full “cradle to cradle” lifecycle, and have low emissions, but are also produced with careful “stewardship” of, for instance, the water and energy consumed in their manufacture. HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports.

 With 2010 annual sales of Euros 1.9 billion, 30 production sites, and some 8,800 staff worldwide servicing its customers daily via sales representation in over 100 countries, Tarkett claims to be “a worldwide leader in innovative and sustainable flooring and sports surface solutions”. Its 30 factories produce an average of one million square metres of flooring every day. The company’s comprehensive flooring portfolio encompasses vinyl, linoleum, rubber, laminate, and wood floorings, plus “accessories and sport surfaces”. While the aesthetics, resilience, and maintenance characteristics of any flooring system are key attributes for healthcare sector specifiers, recent years have also seen growing demand for more “sustainable” floorcoverings, in line with tightening regulations and standards. Coupled to this, heightening consumer interest in the environment generally has seen flooring manufacturers face increasing pressure to develop products with a lower environmental impact, and to clearly communicate, to potential endusers, information on such floorcoverings’ environmental characteristics and performance to enable them to make a more informed buying choice. In flooring systems’ case, speakers at the Tarkett-organised seminar made clear, such pressures now make it essential for producers wishing to compete effectively to not only manufacture floorcoverings with a high recycled content and low overall VOC emissions, but that can also be recycled and/or reprocessed at end of life or, where this is not possible, disposed of in an environmentally acceptable manner.

Early origins