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SandFree® has always been "Green",
but now it is certified "Green". |
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In 2001, when SandFree® was getting going, we selected
products not only because they worked, but also because we wanted our associates
to work with products that would not harm their health. We didn't
anticipate the "green" movement. The Philadelphia
Museum of Art thoroughly tested the products because their concern was that the
art would not be damaged by toxic odors. The PMA knew the products were "green".
To become certified "green",
we didn't change any products, but now they have been tested and approved.
SandFree® as a system is a clean process, which produces
no dust to contaminate the home or work environment. It uses low VOC, waterbased
finishes and cleaners for the greenest, cleanest recoating method.
Phase I and III meet U.S. Green Council LEED
NC 2.2
.Phase IV - meets U.S. Green Council LEED NC
2.2.
Phase V (Satin or Gloss) meets U.S. Green
Council LEED NC 2.2 requirements. It is a low VOC, and low odor
finish. It is an excellent green alternative to High VOC, high solvent oil
based finishes. This catalyzed product stands up to athletic, commercial
and residential traffic. Despite being "green",
it remains the hardest urethane we have found.
What is "Green"?
Excerpts from FOCUS magazine,
www.floordaily.net:
Green, as it
relates to interiors, involves "sustainable design" as it relates to cradle to
cradle manufacturing and servicing of interior products. The U.S. Green
Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program to
certify green buildings still has a lot of holes, but is a great step in the
right direction. "When a designer starts to think about this issue, they
find there is no data or there are no products or there are completing claims,
or there is green washing. There's a lot of confusing claims in the
marketplace. My anxiety basically only gets resolved when I see scientific
data that tells me that what I'm doing is intelligent."
The cradle to cradle concept, advocates an
entirely different approach to manufacturing products that takes into account
what will happen at the end of their useful life. In other words every
product should be designed to be biodegradalbe and return to nature as food, or
be completely reused in another product, preferably the same product, to create
a closed loop.
It's not enough, McDonough says, for
products to have recycled content, be made of natural materials or give off no
gases, the things commonly touted in the green marketing of floorcovering as
"eco-efficient." The products should be free of toxic materials and made
with renewable energy-preferably solar, wind, or geothermal energy - and they
should produce only clean water in their manufacturing.
The issue that McDonough and Michael
Braungart have as their primary goal is to provide cradle to cradle third party
certifications for products of all kinds that meet their requirements. There are
currently varying levels of certification (gold, silver, platinum and basic).
"Most other third party certification
programs only touch on certain aspects of the issue, and taken as a group there
are still a lot of missing pieces. For example, GreenGuard and FloorScore
certifications only cover the volatile organic compounds in products. The
Carpet and Rug Institute's Green Label Plus program certifies air quality and
recycled content. None of them deals with the end-of-life issue the way
the MBDC (McDonough/Braungart) certification does."
MBDC "supports LEED and all these programs
like FloorScore and they're all valuable in their own way but I just don't know
that they're sufficient." because many times the ratings don't deal with how the
products will be recycled.
Because floor refinishing products are not
recycled, we are confident with our LEED certification.
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