How to Get a 100% Green Star Rating for Your Floor Covering - By: Donna Lyon

When calculating your green star rating, it is important to know upfront whether the floor covering you are planning to use is new, reused or environmentally innovative. What can often be a difficult and confusing process to navigate through can be made very simple if you use a secondhand floor covering.

Carpet is by far one of the biggest contributors to landfill of all the floor coverings and accounts for 72% of the buying market. According to the Carpet & Rug Institute, "70% of all carpet replaced each year is replaced for reasons other than wear"!

The most common reasons for why that 70% is discarded is because:

1. The owner doesn’t like the colour (it doesn’t match company branding, the colour is out-dated or not what they had in mind)
2. The owner wants to update the building and furnishings
3. The owner states the carpet is ‘ugly’, or worn or discolored.

Carpet takes more than 50 years to decompose and accounts for a significant amount of the world's landfill. Some manufacturers re-purpose carpet, but this only delays its environmental footprint. It is estimated that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the manufacture of new carpet is 19kgs per square metre and 17.5kgs per square metre for carpet tiles. The emissions resulting from 1000m2 carpet manufactured is equivalent to 3 cars on the road.

By reusing commercial floor coverings, you not only contribute to the diversion of this material from landfill, your company can achieve a 100% green star rating in floor coverings.

According to the Green Building Council Australia (GBCA), re-used content is defined as "...the amount of an item by area, length, volume or mass (the metric chosen must be justified) that is sourced from a product or material that has already fulfilled its originally intended use". Reusable floor covering options can include secondhand commercial carpet, carpet tiles and vinyl flooring.

Here are three simple steps to ensure your company achieves a 100% green star rating for your floor coverings.

1. Ascertain what material you are planning to use. Is it new, reused or environmentally innovative? Rather than buying new product, can you source a secondhand floor covering that is commercial quality?

2. If you choose a secondhand (reusable) floor covering in your new office or refurbishment it means you will be automatically awarded a 100% item score in the Green Star Flooring Calculator (available from GBCA’s website).

3. Using a second hand floor covering also gets you credits in the Waste Management section of the Green Star rating tools (section #7). You will need the company who supplies you the carpet or a recycling company to pick up your existing floor covering for the purpose of reusing it.

Relevant supporting documentation needs to be kept to include square meterage and weight in order to measure the environmental saving.
Achieving a green star rating is that simple and can have enormous benefits for your company, from decreasing operating costs through to increasing your competitive advantage and attracting more tenancy. If you want your business to be recognized as a leader in the environmental landscape then consider getting a green star rating for your building and make life simple by using secondhand commercial carpet or carpet tiles as your choice of floor covering.

About the Author

McMATS Recycled Commercial Carpets is the biggest supplier of second hand commercial carpet and carpet tiles in the Southern Hemisphere. They promote and practice the reuse of commercial floor coverings to stop these products from unnecessarily going into landfill. Visit http://www.mcmatsrecycledcarpets.com.au for more information or phone (03) 9761 4451

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