Eco-friendly flooring to combat poor air quality

Sustainable flooring manufacturer Tarkett has launched its iQ ONE flooring range, which is purpose-designed to improve the air quality and living standards across healthcare, aged-care and education facilities. The range follows the release of the ‘Towards Buildings That Thrive’ report, which addresses the need for design and construction practices that promote healthier and sustainable commercial spaces — with a focus on indoor air quality.

Commissioned by Tarkett and authored by the Thrive Research Hub at The University of Melbourne, the report found that exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from building materials such as flooring can result in significant adverse health issues for building occupants and workers. But despite children, elderly and the sick being particularly vulnerable to unhealthy indoor air quality, the facilities used to service this group are held to the same indoor air quality thresholds as commercial offices and warehouses.

“Unhealthy indoor air quality is one of the biggest threats to Australian’s health and wellbeing in the built environment but is often completely taken for granted,” said Ralph Jorissen, managing director of Tarkett Australasia. “So it is more important now than ever that manufacturers take up strategies that promote healthy indoor environments.

“To address the increased pressure on design professionals to build healthier, sustainable indoor environments, the iQ ONE flooring range provides them with a non-PVC and phthalate-free, low VOC emissions and fully recyclable option that has not yet been seen in this market category.”

The report finds that using sustainable products like Tarkett’s iQ ONE will:

• improve human health and wellbeing by providing low levels of VOCs, increasing hygiene, reducing dust levels, increasing thermal comfort and adding visual and acoustic appeal;
• increase resource efficiency of manufacturing by using less water and energy, producing less waste, maximising recycled material content, using renewable resources and designing for re-use and recyclability;
• boost economic benefits through the use of a finish that is easy to clean and maintain and is long-lasting and durable; and
• improve regeneration impact through creating benefit beyond the immediate product to the systems that the product interacts with across its life cycle.

“The report brings to the forefront the urgent need for the sensible use of materials as the exponential growth of extraction of natural resources for building and construction continues,” said Dr Robert Crawford of the Thrive Research Hub. “Companies that put the wellbeing of the earth and the human population at the centre of their practices will be central to the building industry of the future.”