Picking Eco-Friendly Hardwood

Nadurra’s Guide to Better Wood: An interview with Michael Boulger

What should we look for when choosing eco-friendly wood flooring?

Research the company who is selling it or manufacturing it. See if their environmental record is one of merit or if they are only selling green because it is expected these days. For example if they offer FSC-certified wood floors, see if they have actually purchased and sold any FSC-certified products in the past year. Many companies that advertise FSC do not actually end up selling floors that are FSC-certified. They are just using the logo to give the impression to the consumer that they care. And then of course, buy local, buy reclaimed and refinish your existing flooring whenever possible.

What exactly does FSC certification indicate when it comes to flooring?

Forest Stewardship Council certified - that the wood from which the flooring is made has been environmentally, socially and economically well managed. FSC has 10 strict criteria that forest managers must meet. This encompasses not only the environmental aspect of the forestry (like proper tree rotation and protection of endangered flora and fauna), but also, how the workers are treated, if native land claims are respected and what the long term effects of their forest practices are on the surrounding communities.

Is it true that flooring can have the FSC logo, but in fact not be sustainably grown and manufactured?

For something to be properly FSC-certified it also must pass hands from one FSC-certifed partner to another. For example, from the forest, to the mill, to the distributor. If any one of these contacts is not FSC-certified it breaks the FSC-certification. This is done to stop mixing of FSC and non-FSC logs as those who are certified should know how to segregate the FSC logs. However, as I said before, many companies put the FSC logo on samples in the flooring shop so the consumer thinks anything coming from that manufacturer is FSC, but this is not the case. FSC must be asked for specifically by the consumer to the retailer, then the retailer must specifically order “FSC” from the manufacturer. And then the manufacturer must have FSC stock available, which they may not if they do not sell much. So if the retailer does not see the product labelled as FSC on their invoice and the consumer does not see the product labelled as FSC on their invoice it most likely is not. It’s like a food manufacturer having the Organic capability, but they never actually produce anything “Organic”.

Nadurra has its own certification; can you tell us a little bit about that?

Nadurra has seen the widespread abuse of the FSC logo on sampling throughout flooring stores across Canada. This was one of the reasons we wanted to start our own certification: “NADURA Verified”. The other reasons are that we thought FSC did not go far enough. FSC-certification is just one of the criteria for NADURRA-Verified. For example, among other things we measure how long they have been committed to FSC or other certification bodies, their transparency, their percentage of certified wood overall, if their management plans are publically available, their resource efficiency, transportation footprint and the toxic content of the entire product including finishes.