The plasticizers convey elasticity to the product, making it bendable and malleable and giving it the necessary resilience to survive high foot traffic. Vinyl flooring uses two types of additives for structural performance: plasticizers and stabilizers. Most of the environmental progress in LVT (and PVC flooring in general) over the last few years has been in the greening of additives. Health product declarations and ingredient lists are also not widely used. For now, there are few manufacturer-specific environmental product declarations (EPDs). The multi-attribute certification, NSF-332, has also gained traction. The most commonly used green certifications for vinyl flooring tend to cover indoor air quality and volatile organic emissions (like FloorScore and Greenguard). Like all vinyl products, it has been in more of a defensive mode because of controversy over its ingredients. LVT is a relative newcomer to the sustainability game. And for now, imports account for over two thirds of domestic consumption. Currently, 63% of LVT goes to the residential market, and 37% goes to the commercial market. flooring firms, some of which even have their own LVT capacity. Several prominent offshore producers, for instance, also sell to U.S. There are other estimates of the LVT industry that run far higher, generally because there is so much potential for double counting due to all the private labeling. is a $764 million industry, according to Market Insights LLC, with annual volume of about 405 million square feet. With massive growth in the category and a wave of investment in domestic production, and with most of the leading carpet tile players getting into the game, specifiers are turning their scrutiny toward LVT, which has a long way to go before it can call itself green. Following years of carpet tile taking marketshare and making huge gains in the commercial market, luxury vinyl is now leading growth, and it’s doing so in both the residential and commercial markets.Ĭarpet tile got a lot greener over the years, reducing its environmental footprint more than any other flooring type, to meet the demands of the environmentally focused A&D community, and now LVT faces the same challenge.
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