The world is transitioning towards a more sustainable future, and reducing emissions is the key focus of governments, corporations, and individuals globally.
The building and construction sector accounts for almost 40% of all annual carbon emissions from the operation and construction phases. Embodied carbon or upfront carbon, is all the emissions from the construction phases of a building, including the energy and impacts from manufacturing every finish and fitting within the building.
The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and over 1100 local architectural practices have declared action against climate change and have set goals to reduce embodied carbon in new buildings to net zero by 2030. The Green Building Council sets the benchmark for buildings and products, driving change to favour supply chains that are transparent, healthy, carbon neutral and circular. The Responsible Product Framework developed by the GBCA requires all products used in Green Star projects to meet certain requirements across both independent certification and proof of a valid and current Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). An EPD documents the full makeup and lifecycle of a product and allows one to understand the true impacts of a product across several common categories from raw material extraction, to manufacture, transport and use, and end-of-use stage.
Marmoleum – the carbon and circular champion
Marmoleum is a flooring product that is future-ready, now. A carbon champion that is carbon neutral from cradle to gate, its natural raw materials absorb more carbon during their growth phase than is required to manufacture the flooring. Marmoleum also contains a high percentage of recycled content in its makeup and end-of-life recycling options.
In addition to the product itself, for every square metre installed in Australia, local climate partner Carbon Positive, plants native trees and shrubs to create long-term carbon sinks, not as an offset program, but rather as a regeneration of local habitat that has been cleared or damaged, restoring parts of native Australia to what it was before. Marmoleum can help lower a building’s overall embodied carbon footprint and resource consumption, thus helping to meet climate goals. Being a natural, highly plant-based material, it also improves indoor health and well-being.
Natural beauty, proven performance
Aside from its impressive sustainability credentials, Marmoleum is exceptionally hard-wearing and not dissimilar to timber floors; as it continues to harden over time, contributing to a very long lifetime. The new Topshield pro surface finish provides incredible protection from scratches and scuffs making floor care a breeze. Additionally, Marmoleum is naturally bacteriostatic, and allergy and asthma approved.
The new addition: Marmoleum Cocoa
The sustainable Marmoleum champion just got better. The Dutch region De Zaanstreek – The region where Forbo’s Marmoleum factory is an area where cocoa is produced and processed. This inspired them to create a cocoa-themed floor covering using a combination of sustainable Marmoleum flooring and recycled cocoa husks.
Forbo’s sustainable design ethos is perfectly displayed in this collection of linoleum flooring; the use of tough cocoa husks, a waste product from cocoa production, is ground and added to the mix. The finely ground cocoa husks add a unique granular look and feel to the floor design. Not only do they use cocoa husks, but also incorporated pre- and post-consumer Marmoleum, which they believe achieves the ultimate challenge of circularity.
The Marmoleum Cocoa production process prevents and reduces carbon emissions while also allowing the product to be recycled or reused resulting in less pollution. In fact, every square metre saved from incineration after its lifetime saves emissions to the equivalent of 1.8 kg of CO.
Other complete flooring solutions that contribute to Green Star and sustainable projects
Forbo prides itself on offering total flooring solutions for all areas and catering to each project’s specific needs. While PVC products will never be as sustainable or low in embodied carbon as Marmoleum, there are attributes that contribute to Green Star buildings. Their PVC collections including Eternal general purpose vinyl, Sphera homogeneous vinyl, Step safety flooring, Sarlon acoustic vinyl, Allura LVT and Flotex resilient textile are all GreenTag GreenRate Level A and Best Practice PVC certified. While circularity for PVC still poses a large challenge, progress is being made through local and strong industry collaboration.
If you would like to learn more about responsible products and how they fit within Green Star, please visit www.forbo-flooring.com.au/sustainability or to discover the latest Marmoleum Cocoa collection visit www.forbo-flooring.com.au/marmoleum-cocoa
