Rubber Flooring & Global Warming Potential
A look at Rubber Flooring and the Global Warming Potential metric
When looking at flooring products, and in particular rubber flooring, it is important to have choice, be informed and feel able to compare.
We feel that being aware of the responsibility of choice and the factors available for comparison is, with rubber flooring, and all product groups, key.
One area where rubber flooring, and other resilient floor types can be compared is by using the metric of Global Warming Potential (GWP).
GWP is a key element within the EPD framework and it is shown as a figure referencing a product’s Carbon Dioxide impact through kg of co2 equivalent.
Carbon Dioxide is used as the reference point as it is one of the most relevant factors to consider when looking at the wider impact of manufacturing.
The term Carbon Footprint is now a house hold term and being mindful of a product’s GWP allows architects, designers and end user clients to be able to select, approve and use products based on real and factual information. It provides third party verification of a product’s environmental impact and can also open up dialogue around scheme improvements.
By using GWP figures one rubber flooring product can be directly compared to another. Rubber flooring can then also be measured against other potential flooring types and options. This is crucial as many specifications are issued as “equal and approved” and we would suggest that GWP be looked at so to determine whether a product, perhaps offered as an alternative, is actually acceptable from an embodied carbon perspective.
There is also scope here for existing specifications to be improved based on a full view of a product's Life Cycle. We can do this by asking what is the real cost?
Manufacturers can also be scrutinised directly using respective GWP metrics and if, over a period of years, GWP figures are not falling, we should be asking “why not?”.
On the contary, a falling GWP directly identifies, and highlights a manufacturing team that is committed to improving and reducing its product’s impact.
We feel this is an important conversation in the rubber flooring and wider product world.
