Check: Criteria for sustainable flooring 

Sustainability has become a big issue. Over the years, it has taken on a life of its own, growing far beyond a short-lived trend and becoming anchored in the consciousness of our society. For example, companies are rethinking their entire philosophy based on environmentally friendly concepts, and our mobility and technical accomplishments are becoming greener all the time.

Even in the private sphere, sustainability is gaining momentum. Home owners are increasingly placing greater importance on an environmentally friendly home – in the form of sustainable flooring. “Quality over quantity” is the golden rule. In other words: it’s better to invest once in a beautiful and durable floor, that will last almost forever, than to replace the flooring every few years with something whose best days are numbered. The latter verges on a waste of time, material and money. As a result, a sustainable floor is the economical choice three times over: for your wallet, for your nerves and for the environment.

Wood has long been one of the top candidates for the most popular material used in natural flooring. Wood flooring  is not only classic and beautiful, but offers a wide variety of surfaces to suit any style of interior design that will enhance the appearance of your home for a long time to come. When comes to eco-friendliness, wood flooring is the perfect choice, provided that the wood is PEFC-certified or otherwise sustainably sourced. PEFC stands for “Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes” – an independent organisation dedicated to making forestry more sustainable, which exclusively certifies wood that is demonstrably sourced from sustainable forestry. When you buy wood flooring that is PEFC-certified,  you can rest assured that you have helped protect the environment. Apart from this, the treatment of wood flooring can be made environmentally friendly too. For example, instead of sealing your floors with chemical substances, you can use natural oils and waxes. 

If you not only care about the origin of raw materials, but about the responsible use of resources too, you may want to consider Lindura wood flooring.  Thanks to the innovative product structure, the real wood covering layer of Lindura is extremely thin. As a result, 5.5 cubic metres of oak wood makes up to 3,600 square metres of Lindura wood flooring! By comparison, the same amount of oak wood makes only 95 square metres of solid planks (20 mm thick) and 850 square metres of parquet flooring (3-layer parquet from MEISTER). By that measure, Lindura is a real sustainability champion!

Many vinyl floors are the exact opposite of environmentally friendly. They contain PVC and harmful plasticisers, which evaporate over time. They can also be difficult to dispose of or recycle. Luckily, there are alternatives: Innovative design flooring, such as “vinyl flooring without the vinyl” are PVC-free and don’t contain plasticisers. This means they are ecologically non-harmful. At the same time, they offer all the advantages of conventional vinyl flooring, namely durability and low maintenance. They also come in a wide range of decors to suit every taste – even if you prefer a natural look! You can identify sustainable design flooring by “The Blue Angel” – an internationally recognised environmental seal awarded to environmentally friendly products for more than 40 years.

A little-known fact: laminate flooring iflooring is also a very ecological floor covering! It consists of 95% natural resources, particularly wood. A robust HDF layer forms the core of the laminate. As laminate flooring gets its appearance from an authentic, high-quality decor paper, there is no need to use real wood to create a beautiful wood aesthetic, or even concrete and stone imitations. High-quality laminate flooring, like that of MEISTER, not only looks fantastic but is extremely durable too. As a result, it withstands daily wear for many years and only rarely needs to be replaced. And when the time comes: laminate flooring from MEISTER can simply be disposed of with normal household waste, as it does not contain any harmful substances requiring special disposal. That you can be sure of, as this product group from MEISTER has been awarded “The Blue Angel” environmental seal.