Laminate hardwoods in a windowed room

Three Sustainability Benefits of Laminate Flooring

Published on

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Tagged with: build environment, carbon footprint, carbon storage, climate positive, durable designs, laminate flooring, resources, responsibly harvested wood, wood products industry, wood-based laminates, wood-based products

1. Wood-based laminate flooring utilizes MORE HARVESTED WOOD FIBER

Solid wood lumber and furniture operations can only use about half of the wood fiber they harvest, while NALFA member flooring products are made from the rest of that harvested fiber. The usage is impressive – we can now convert almost all of the wood fiber harvested from managed forests into products that can be used for decades.

2. LCA’s SHOW LAMINATE FLOORING Provides CLIMATE POSITIVE CARBON STORAGE

Even better: Trees naturally capture and store atmospheric carbon as they grow, which is stored, or sequestered, until the wood burns or decays. Life cycle assessments show that wood-based laminate floor cores store more carbon than is released in their production, offsetting extra atmospheric carbon. This is what makes wood-based laminate flooring a truly Climate Positive material.

3. Engineered Wood FLOORING offers GUILT-FREE WOODGRAINS

Laminate flooring carries durable surface designs that are meticulously scanned from samples of rare and fragile woods. This way, more of us can enjoy the unique beauty of wood while minimizing negative impacts on old-growth forests.

Please join us in welcoming the North American Laminate Flooring Association (NALFA) as a supporting partner promoting the use of beautiful, durable, healthy, and sustainable materials in the built environment!

Developed by Material Intelligence, ClimatePositiveNOW.org is a sustainable materials education project inspired by a combination of Kenn Busch’s research into the properties of wood-based architectural materials, and his two decades of experience delivering educational content to interior designers and architects.


Subscribe for Updates!

Kenn Busch studio portait on black background

Article by Kenn Busch

Madison-based Kenn Busch is a journalist and the founder of Material Intelligence, a sustainability subject matter expert, and the founder of ClimatePositiveNOW.org. He is dedicated to bridging the knowledge gap between materials and sustainability for furniture and interior architecture.

More about Kenn »


The Shores family seated in front of their sod house with chairs, barrels and a team of horses

The best way to protect the environment? Understand the inherited wealth of the land

Best way to honor nature is to use furnishings designed to last Before about 1880 in the United States, people would travel to a photographer’s studio to have their “likeness” taken. A new genre of photography developed around 1880 as photographers could bring mobile cameras with them. The result was entire families standing outside their ... Read more
Exposed balloon framing behind removed siding, showing continuous studs notched to carry a horizontal girt that supports second-floor joists

America didn’t invent the wood house, but we did do a lot after the invention of the nail

English colonists were constrained in every building supply but wood. And America's history with it has shaped our housing style, choice, and aesthetics for 250 years.