Improve your Environmental Credentials with your Commercial Refurbishment

Concern for the environment is a key driver for many business owners, their employees and customers alike.

As such, many businesses are looking to reduce the impact they have on the environment across all areas of their operation. 

Being environmentally friendly is no longer just a PR exercise but a real desire by the business to play its part in protecting the environment, developing sustainable products and ensuring that their processes and practices are as green as possible.

In our latest blog find out more about how you can ensure your next commercial refurbishment is as environmentally friendly as possible, no matter how big or small your business is.

Commercial Refurbishment Projects – Going Green

Whether organisations hold (or are trying to achieve) ISO 14401 status (an accreditation in environmental management systems) or not, businesses of all sizes are becoming much more environmentally aware when it comes to refurbishing their commercial premises. 

From landlords to hotels and offices alike we are seeing an increase in clients wanting to do their bit to help reduce their impact on the environment.

Whether that’s through the carbon footprint of the items they are buying, the sustainability and materials of the products they are using, or the waste created and how it is disposed of, they are all being included within their thought processes, plans and budgets. 

For some, they only want to work with contractors and suppliers who can demonstrate the right environmental credentials or who can provide green solutions to their refurbishment. 

Being Environmentally Friendly – Things to Consider

There are a number of ways that businesses can reduce their environmental impact.  The following are just a few to consider for your next refurbishment project:

1. LED lighting – Up to 80% more efficient that traditional lighting, LED lighting uses less energy to light offices and other commercial buildings and far less energy is wasted as heat energy.
2. Shopping locally – Working with local suppliers can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the overall project.
3. Sustainable products – Researching materials and products from sustainable sources or environmentally friendly suppliers can make a substantial difference to the overall impact of the project.
4. Renewable heating / energy – Considering other heating solutions such as installing solar panels or getting your energy supplied by a company that only generates renewable energy reduces your carbon footprint dramatically!
5. Recycling offcuts / Furniture – When you’ve finished with a piece of furniture make sure it goes to a new owner or as much of it as possible is recycled and reused. Rivendell recycles old flooring through supporting the Children’s Scrapstore in Bristol, and of course IKEA has recently announced it will use only renewable and recycled materials by 2030!

Don’t Forget the Flooring!

One area often forgotten about when looking at ways to improve the environmental credentials of a commercial building lies right beneath your feet!  Increasingly there are more and more sustainable or environmentally friendly flooring materials available.   

We’ve listed a few flooring options below to give you an idea of the wide range of products out there:

Looking for Wooden Flooring – Choose Bamboo

If you’ve decided that reclaimed wood flooring isn’t right for your refurbishment project, why not consider bamboo? It has the look of wood flooring with similar properties to hard wood, whilst being part of the grass family. After being harvested it grows back within 3-5 years, unlike hardwood which can take around 20 years offering a much more sustainable source of flooring.

Woodpecker provide bamboo flooring with a click joint eradicating the need to use a harmful glue.

Vinyl Flooring – Part Recycled

Moduleo® vinyl flooring contains up to 50 percent recycled material and is itself recyclable. It also contains heat insulating properties helping to cut down on energy bills.

Moduleo® are also proud to be ISO 14001 accredited so customers can be assured of their environmental credentials and practices.

Carpet Tiles – No Impact on the Environment

Carpet tiles are a great flooring option for commercial buildings and developments as individual tiles can be replaced as required thus reducing cost and wastage.

Versatile and practical Modulyss’ carpet tiles are designed with sustainability in mind. The materials used are carefully selected to ensure there is no impact on the environment – or as they put it, ecologically viable.

Modulyss have developed their own ecological collection using ECONYL nylon yarn – 100% regenerated yarn. They also re-use any carpet waste generated during the cutting process and incorporate it into the secondary backing of their products.

Luxury Carpets – Green Qualities

One of our new carpet suppliers Elements London uses Teksilk in a range of its carpets. Teksilk is a silky-soft material but as tough as Teflon. It is therefore ideal for commercial properties, restaurants or hotels where there is heavy footfall.

Their Teksilk carpets’ green qualities are due to its backing called Ceneva, which is the world’s first carpet backing that does not contain the carbon-based chemical styrene-butadiene. Instead it uses a compound based on vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) which is much less damaging to the environment.

Natural Flooring – Bio-degradable

Wool is a natural fibre and truly eco-friendly. The sheep need to be sheered; the wool provides soft flooring whilst also being a great heat insulator. And at the end of its life, wool is 100% bio-degradable. 

Alternative Flooring’s Barefoot collection is made from 100% natural wool and woven by hand to create the ultimate environmentally friendly flooring option.

Alternative also produce other flooring products from sustainable natural resources such as coir, made from Indian coconut husk fibres as well as jute, sisal and seagrass.

Rivendell – Let Us Help Your Business be a little Greener

The above is just a small selection of the more environmentally friendly flooring products now on the market. If you would like to discuss your next commercial refurbishment project and discuss how you can incorporate sustainable flooring materials, book a consultation on 0117 963 7979

Categorised in: Eco Friendly Flooring, Office Flooring

This post was written by Binks