Linoleum Floor Life Cycle Assessment

Linoleum Characteristics

• Linoleum is made from abundant, natural and renewable raw materials, starting with oxidized linseed oil, from pressed flax seeds. Sometimes linseed oil is mixed with tall oil, a recycled resin-based fatty acid, to optimize oxidation. Oil is blended with natural pine rosin -- sap tapped from trees without doing lasting harm -- to add strength and flexibility. Wood flour, cork flour, ground limestone and natural pigments are added to create linoleum granules, which are then pressed onto all-natural jute backing. Very long lasting, eventually linoleum needs replacing. It can be safely incinerated to produce energy or left to naturally biodegrade in landfills. Linoleum contains no heavy metals or other toxins, produces no gases and has natural anti-bacterial and anti-static properties.

Life Cycle Assessments

• The point of LCA tools is to systematically evaluate the environmental impacts linked to products or processes. As Dovetail Partners, Inc. explains it, LCA analyses provide insight into the environmental impacts of product choices by evaluating the entire product life cycle, from raw materials to final product disposal or recycling. Information provided by LCAs can help consumers assess alternatives, such as comparing linoleum to other flooring options.

Assessment Limitations

• Results of LCA analysis are often described as comprehensive and thorough. But every LCA compares a limited number of factors, and includes only environmental impacts that are measurable. In some cases serious environmental harm – such as toxic waste – is known but has not been quantified. Tom Lent of Energy & Environmental Consulting in Berkeley pointed out at the GreenBuild 2003 Conference that these LCA limitations sometimes mislead people about products’ environmental impacts.

Linoleum LCA Results

• The Building for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (BEES) assessment program from the National Institute of Standards and Technology is the most comprehensive single LCA for flooring, though it evaluates only products used in commercial buildings. In terms of environmental impacts the BEES LCA ranked linoleum second only to natural cork. When economic factors are also considered, the BEES analysis rates vinyl composition tile first and linoleum second. But, as Dovetail Partners points out, only BEES rates vinyl so highly. Other LCA analyses consistently rate linoleum among products with the lowest environmental impacts along with cork and solid wood.