Study presented by TCNA compares the negative environmental impacts of different types of flooring
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) illustrate how ceramic tile delivers both performance and transparency in terms of sustainability, whether your project is residential or commercial.
EPDs for North American-made ceramic tiles, mortars, and grouts all report very low 75-year environmental impacts per installed square meter. In fact, when the EPD for North American-made ceramic tile is compared to the generic EPDs for other types of flooring, developed under the same product category rules and using the same building service life, North American-made ceramic tile has the lowest overall environmental impact across all impact categories.
This includes the lowest Global Warming Potential and the lowest Fossil Fuel Resource Depletion. When compared to UL Certified EPDs for other types of flooring developed under the 2018 North American Flooring Product Category Rule, UL 10010-7, ceramic tile has the lowest 75-year global warming potential value and lowest fossil fuel resource depletion.
Over 85% of North American ceramic tiles are covered by the industry-wide ceramic tile EPD.
Simply stated, the industry-wide EPD is a report of the environmental footprint of the North American ceramic tile industry. The environmental impacts reported by the EPD are significantly lower than those reported by EPDs for flooring composed of plastic based materials, such as luxury vinyl tiles and planks. In particular, a direct comparison to publicly available UL-Certified industry-wide EPDs for vinyl tile and rigid core board reveals the following:
- Vinyl tile’s 75-year global warming potential and fossil fuel resource depletion are two and three times higher, respectively, than ceramic tile’s global warming potential.
- Rigid core board’s 75-year global warming potential and fossil fuel resource depletion are three and five times higher, respectively, than ceramic tile’s fossil fuel resource depletion.
This makes ceramic tile both cost-effective and a smart choice for reducing negative environmental impacts, resource use, and demolition waste when compared to flooring products that need to be replaced more frequently.
