20.04 June/July 2008

Sustainable Fitness Flooring

With high schools and colleges spending billions of dollars each year on facility construction, school administrators are faced with tough decisions about how to keep costs low and values high. The design decisions for making weightrooms and fitness areas more state-of-the-art are no different. Having a project plan that incorporates strategies on energy and environmental consumption makes these decisions easier.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) can assist those who are researching such strategies. In 2000, the USGBC introduced a voluntary building rating system called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for new construction (LEED-NC).

In 2004, the council developed renovation guidelines for existing buildings (LEED-EB) that provide sustainable benchmarks for a facility's maintenance and operation. Last year, the council detailed high-performance and costeffective benchmarks specific to educational institutions that address acoustics, master planning, mold prevention, and environmental site assessments.

"These benchmarks include not only maximizing the efficiency of all building systems, but maintenance strategies that will result in improved indoor air quality," says Diane Brandli, Green Schools Advocate for the upstate New York chapter of the USGBC, who has more than 25 years of experience in educational facility and sustainable design. "These strategies will make a positive contribution toward human and environmental health, and will also result in financial savings."

Facilities seeking a USGBC LEED certification (certified, silver, gold, and platinum) receive credits for achieving benchmarks outlined in six categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process.

Only buildings receive certification, Brandli stresses—manufactured products do not. "However, there are some product certifications that are used as reference standards by the LEED rating system, such as 'Energy Star' for appliances," she says.

These certifications cover products that exhibit energy and cost efficiencies, and those that reduce gas emissions, Brandli says. For facility flooring, she suggests consumers look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification on wood products and the "Green Seal" label on other goods.

The FSC label certifies that the wood product was manufactured from a sustainably managed forest. The Green Seal certifies that materials used in the manufacturing of the flooring product—such as rubber tiles, carpeting, bonding adhesives, and sealants—emit low volatile organic compounds (such as a VOC measurement of 60g/L for rubber flooring) and are formulated with less than 0.1 percent of carcinogens, ozone-depleting substances, and/or persistent bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) compounds. If products are painted, the paint cannot contain toxic components. Additionally, the Green Seal product must be packaged and shipped using resealable, reusable, recyclable, or reconditioned material.

Facilities with such flooring products could earn credits in the material and resource and indoor air quality categories of the LEED rating system. Even if a building is not seeking USGBC certification, facility users will most likely benefit. The above attributes have been correlated with improved student, athlete, and employee mental and physical performance, improved heating and cooling efficiency in buildings, and reductions in the number of reported illnesses by students and employee sick days.* (See the Resources box below for further research on sustainable facility products.)

Purchasing sustainable flooring products, though, incurs greater up-front costs, says Brandli. However, the cost is on average only two percent higher than for non-sustainable goods. "The misconception about a project's cost is the biggest hurdle to jump," she says. "When a school official has questions, I explain the long list of attributes that contribute to making a product truly sustainable, two of which are durability and longevity.

"If a product is durable and long-lasting," continues Brandli, "it reduces the demand on extraction of raw materials and reduces the quantity of material going into a landfill. It also benefits the administrator in terms of lower life-cycle costs, which enhances the building's profits and overall value. This frequently convinces the official to make the initial investment."

Finally, when getting ready to make a purchase, consumers should not assume that a product labeled "recycled" automatically contributes toward the building's LEED credits. "What makes sustainable products different from typical products is that the sustainable products address a long list of issues regarding human, environmental, and economic health," Brandli says.


Questions to ask when researching sustainable weight room flooring products:

  • How and where was the flooring product manufactured?
  • What chemicals were used in this process, including those in paints?
  • Does the product have a special certification?
  • What attributes of the flooring product make it environmentally safe?
  • What type of sealant and/or adhesive is used during the installation process?
  • How durable is the product and how long will it last?
  • How is the flooring product shipped?


Resources: