USFloors Earns First-Ever Children & Schools Certification for Bamboo Flooring
ATLANTA – The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) recently announced that USFloors Inc. has achieved the first-ever GREENGUARD certification for a complete line of bamboo flooring. Though bamboo flooring has long been considered a sustainable choice because it is a rapidly renewable material, it now helps create healthier indoor environments by meeting the stringent chemical emissions standards of the GREENGUARD Certification ProgramSM.
"The level of interest in environmentally responsible and healthier products has never been greater than it is today," says Dr. Marilyn Black, founder of GEI. "The GREENGUARD Certification Program attends to the public health component of sustainability and provides consumers and building professionals with an objective resource to minimize chemical exposure in their homes and buildings."
Indoor air quality can have a significant impact on the health of building occupants and is therefore recognized as critical to the creation of healthy, high-performance interior environments by numerous sustainable building programs such as, the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program and the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) National Green Building Program. Both of these programs, and many others, identify the specification of GREENGUARD Children & SchoolsSM Certified products as a strategy to improve indoor air quality and fulfill requirements for low-emitting materials.
USFloors is a leading manufacturer of bamboo, cork and other hardwood flooring products for both residential and contract commercial environments. The company markets its contract products under the USF Contract brand.
The GREENGUARD Children & Schools Program is one of the most stringent and rigorous indoor air quality certification programs in the world. Products certified to this standard have been screened for more than 10,000 different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and undergo periodic verification processes to remain certified. The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, an independent, third-party organization dedicated to improving indoor air, oversees the certification program and develops the standards that guide it.
"USFloors and USF Contract strive to offer beautiful, durable flooring products for both the residential and contract markets that address every element of sustainability," says Piet Dossche, president and CEO of USFloors. "Achieving GREENGUARD Children & Schools Certification is important to us as a means of demonstrating our commitment to indoor environmental quality and furthering our efforts to provide flooring that makes a difference."
About the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute
Founded in 2001, the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) is an independent, third-party organization that oversees the GREENGUARD certification programs. The Institute's mission is to protect human health and quality of life through programs that improve indoor air. As an ANSI-accredited standards developer, GEI establishes acceptable indoor air standards for building materials, interior products, electronic equipment, indoor environments and buildings. The more than 200,000 GREENGUARD- certified products represented under the GREENGUARD certification mark must meet stringent; third-party standards for low chemical emissions based on established health standards and undergo rigorous testing and verification processes on a regular basis. GREENGUARD certification is broadly recognized and accepted by a number of "green" building programs, including the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Rating System. For more information and a complete listing of certified products, visit www.greenguard.org.
About USFloors
Based in Dalton, Georgia, USFloors (which is the brand moniker for Unique and Sustainable Floors) is a leading producer of sustainable, eco-friendly floors including cork, bamboo, linoleum and FSC-certified hardwood floors. The company also provides the products to the contract market under the USF Contract brand. USFloors is the ONLY supplier of cork and bamboo flooring with manufacturing facilities operating in the United States. USFloors' commitment is to provide consumers and specifiers with beautiful and durable floors at a good value, while minimizing the impact on the environment, and enhancing and improving it whenever possible. Visit www.usfloorsllc.com to learn more.