As a floor that’s natural and renewable, cork is a sustainable choice. Yet, there is a lot more to cork’s green story.
Granorte manufacturers cork floors and other products in Portugal, where it has been finding new ways to use the waste cork from wine stopper production since 1972. The cork used in Granorte’s flooring ranges is originally harvested from the bark of trees within Portugal’s protected forests.
Portugal produces around 50% of the world’s cork supply and its forests are strictly protected by the government. In fact, the first regulations protecting the country’s cork forests date back to the 13th Century. This strict protection, which includes government approval for the removal of trees, ensures that Granorte cork floors come from a sustainable natural resource. These forests also lock in carbon, with a recent study showing that Portuguese cork forests absorbs 4.8 million tonnes of carbon each year.
Unlike wood, cork is harvested from the bark of the tree and is renewed after nine years for the life cycle of the tree, which can be over 200 years. This makes cork a rapidly renewable natural resource*, yet by the time it reaches Granorte, it is also a post-industrial recycled material, coming as the waste of the wine stopper industry. The cork industry is highly efficient in its raw material use with every gram used. Even cork dust is harnessed as a green energy source.
Granorte takes this natural material and manufactures a range of highly sustainable flooring options. In its purest form – the glue-down tiles of Tradition – this makes a Granorte floor made from 90% recycled and rapidly renewable natural resources. There are few other floors that are suitable for commercial use that have this status. Even with its engineered floating floors using Uniclic®, Granorte achieves up to 80% renewable natural materials status.
Granorte’s range of cork flooring provides commercial interiors with a wide range of sustainable choices, backed by high levels of UK stock.
For further information, 01952 443 555, www.granorte.co.uk
* The US Green Building Council defines rapidly renewable as a material that’s able to regenerate itself in 10 years or less.
