green flor

I saw this story from Tuesday in the New York Times and was excited to share it. Flor is a carpet tile product which you may be familiar with. It is very stylish and easy to use. I used it in my kids' play area. (Picture above is from the catalog, not my kids' play area!)

The mom in me loves that it is so modular and creative. In fact, I didn't even stick the carpet down (it comes with sticky tape to do that if you desire). If your kid has a permanent unfixable spill, you can replace just the square affected instead of an entire large carpet. Of course, I only say that as a last-resort option.

I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with green. I know carpet isn't such a "green" thing, but for areas where you need something soft underfoot, this is a nice option.

The green part of Flor is the company. For starters, they have "Return Recycle" program. When you are ready to get rid of the Flor tiles (if ever) the company will arrange for your used carpet tiles to be picked up and shipped back to their mill, where the old tiles will be recycled into new product.

And finally, the NY Times reported Tuesday in the Science section about Flor's mission to reduce its impact on the environment. Quite a feat for an industrial company! They have been able to reduce their contributions to landfills by 80% and reduced use of fossil fuels by 45%. You can read the article or even watch a short video by the NYT.

I think it is inspiring for individuals like me (trying to go green) to see large companies trying, too.

In case the above links don't work and you want to search the NYT yourself: the article is called "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet" and the video is titled, "Planet Us: Born Again Green"