How Our Sustainability Efforts Can Help You with Yours
Once more, here at Polyflor we are thrilled to have achieved “Excellent” status in our recent BES 6001 audit for responsibly sourced materials. And it had us thinking about how exactly this, and some of our other sustainability efforts, can directly benefit you and your business.
We use responsibly sourced materials
BES 6001 is an environmental and sustainability standard, which provides a framework for the responsible sourcing of construction products. This third-party assessment reviews specific environmental, economic, and social impacts to provide recognition for suppliers embracing sustainability.
Polyflor continued to use trusted, local suppliers who are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified where possible. However, this standard does not simply focus on our suppliers though, it has been a massive undertaking by the company throughout. BES 6001 has provided direction with social responsibility management – focusing particularly on internal procedures regarding employees, as well as how Polyflor engages with its local communities and stakeholders in general.
How does our BES 6001 credential help you?
There are many benefits to specifying a product certified to BES 6001. The assurance that organisations must satisfy requirements relating to supply chain management, energy use, waste management and corporate social responsibility, including employment and modern slavery. BES 6001 certification can also secure additional credits within the Code for Sustainable Homes and contribute to the available points of a BREEAM Assessment.
Our ‘In Use’ sustainability benefits
The ‘In Use’ phase of our flooring’s lifecycle accounts for at least 80% of a resilient flooring’s environmental impact and therefore it is important to us that our products are engineered to reduce this impact wherever possible.
Our products feature an easy to maintain PUR surface treatment meaning that use of polish, water, strippers and chemical cleansers are significantly reduced. This cuts down the amount of water and chemicals needed to maintain the floor, keeps the floor looking great for longer and contributes to significant maintenance cost savings for the life of the floor.
Air Quality is also a hot topic when considering the ‘In Use’ environmental impact of our flooring products. The VOC emissions of our flooring collections are all below the very strictly set, accepted levels and have achieved Indoor Air Comfort Gold.
How do our eased maintenance and indoor air quality benefits help you?
You are able to provide a high-quality product that offers both an easy maintenance regime and stands the test of time. Because our products are certified for extremely low VOC emissions and therefore offer a better, cleaner indoor air quality, they also help in meeting WELL Building Standard® and contributing to BREEAM®, LEED®, and Green Star® projects.
Reuse or recycling of our products
Recycling is important to us all here at Polyflor, and we are proactively closing the loop, preventing postproduction and postconsumer waste vinyl from entering the waste stream via our Recofloor take back scheme. Many of our floor coverings can be reused, but if not, they are 100% recyclable through the Recofloor scheme.
How can recofloor help you?
There are a wealth of benefits to recycling with Recofloor, including demonstrating a commitment to the environment and the circular economy and helping you achieve extra points on a BREEAM® a BREEAM® assessment – crucial when every point counts! However, there can also be financial advantages. The drop-off sites are free of charge. For non-timed collections and timed collections from live projects there are fees of around £30 and £60 per tonne respectively, which could save our members up to 70% by recycling through Recofloor, rather than landfilling.
We are continuously working on our sustainability practices and how we can reduce our impact on the environment. For more information on all the steps we’re taking, visit www.polyflor.com/sustainability