Before we dive into things, we must first establish a definition of the term “eco-friendly”. Eco-friendly could be broken down into two words: ecosystem and friendly. Our ecosystem is made up of humans, animals, plants, and living organisms that combine with the nonliving components such as air, water, fire, and soil.
A quick search on the Internet’s dictionaries will list this term as “not harmful to the environment” or a similar definition. In other words, being friendly to our ecosystem: “eco-friendly”.
Common Elements of “Eco-Friendly”
Every company will differ on this matter. But generally steps should be taken with our ecosystem in mind:
- Conserving resources by using practices that do not exhaust an ecosystem’s resources.
- Using chemicals that are known to be safe for living organisms.
- Recycling materials (which helps conserve resources).
- Biodegradability – meaning a product can be broken down naturally on its own without using a landfill (again, conserving space).
Well-Managed Forests
Urban Floor sources its raw materials – which in our case are wood that we use for the base of all of our floors – from ecologically well-managed forests. That sounds nice, who cares?
Well, let us explain. An ecologically well-managed forest is a forest that is very carefully planned out so that a forest’s trees are not exhausted without the possibility of having them regrow.
For example, a person or company could simply take over a forest, cut all of the trees down, and you would have a flat landscape when all said and done. That’s not ecological.
For a well-managed forest, there are strict selective cutting practices that allow enough time (several years – up to 30 or more) for trees to regrow. This is because after a tree is cut down, a new one is planted. We’re making it seem basic, but it’s a lot more complex than this – it takes a lot of careful management to make this happen efficiently and most importantly, ecologically.
Safe for Living Organisms?
In addition to being committed to ecosystem conservation, we’re equally as committed to the health of homeowners that use our product, as well as our own employees that engineer the products.
Urban Floor uses environmentally safe adhesives – and by that mean we mean safe to be around or live with. We meet the standards of California’s Air Resources Board’s formaldehyde emissions.
Backed by Facts
A 3rd party testing laboratory tested a variety of products and determined that less than .01 micrograms of emissions were present in our hardwood floors.
Also, all of our products are Phase 2 certified compliant. In layman’s terms, our products have met strict standards to ensure everyone around our products is happy and SAFE!
So yes, you could say Urban Floor does in fact provide “eco-friendly” hardwood floors. ☺