ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL® (FSC)

PG Flooring has been FSC® certified for their chain of custody since 2005.

ADVANTAGES OF FSC®:

• The only standard recognized publicly by Greenpeace and the WWF.
• The toughest organization on the issue of good forest management.
• An organization that protects not only forests, but societies living in or near forests (principales and criteria).
• Much of our supply birch, maple and red oak originate from FSC® suppliers with certified chains of custody.

PG Flooring can supply FSC® certified wood in the following species:

Red oak | Maple | Birch | Silver maple (subject to availability)

The Forest Stewardship Council® is an international non-governmental organization which promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests. To learn more visit www.fsc.org.

 

LEED (LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN) PROGRAM

The FSC® is the only certification system recognized by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program. Demand for FSC® certified wood generated by LEED projects is continuously increasing. Depending on their attributes, solid hardwood, prefinished and pre-oiled products can contribute to obtaining LEED points based on different criteria.

At PG Flooring, we are aware of the issues facing the forests of today and tomorrow. This is why we want to participate actively in the protection of our forests with the assurance that responsible forest management decisions taken today will guarantee a promising future.

 

 

ORIGIN OF RAW MATERIAL

PG Flooring is committed to avoiding use of non-certified wood from controversial sources. Therefore, we refrain from using the following wood:

• Wood harvested from forests affected by persistent social conflict;
• Wood from highly protected non-certified sources;
• Genetically modified wood;
• Wood harvested illegally;
• Wood from natural forests converted to plantations or non-forest use;
• We ask our suppliers to sign a document to ensure that they have a conform code of conduct concerning the origin of their raw material.

 

 

CONSIDERATION FOR RAW MATERIAL

The following are measures taken in-house to encourage responsible forest management and protect the environment:

• We produce five different board widths. Five widths offer the best combinations and the least waste.
• Because boards arrive in random widths, we are now including a new width of 5 1/4 inches (133.35 mm). This new width will replace the 2 1/2 inch width that, at PG Flooring alone, accounted for 6 500 trees saved annually. The addition of the 5 1/4 inch maintains our “going green” initiative, increasing product yield by 7% and saving trees.
• The average yield of manufacturing companies in North America is 65%. Through important prevention and conservation measures applied to raw material and the production process, we have been able to obtain an average yield exceeding 85%. This means that for 10 million board feet of wood used, we obtain 8.5 million board feet of finished products. This represents 1 million more board feet than the North American average. This extraordinary yield has a positive impact on the forest in the form of more than 16 500 trees.

 

 

ECORESPONSIBILITY

• All waste wood is put to use, either to heat our buildings and kilns or through the sale of shavings to the melamine sheet wood industry, wood pellet manufacturers and farmers.
• We also recycle all waste other than wood (paper, cardboard, metal, chemical and plastic products). 
• We are generating approximately 12,000 carbon credits per year, available for sale.
• Eco-design criteria are integrated into our product development process. 
• The heat generated by our equipment is recovered to heat our plants.
• More than 95% of our raw material supplies come from less than 300 km away.
• Teleworking and videoconferencing are increasingly being adopted by our administrative employees, reducing the CO2 emissions coming from our cars.
• In 2015, all our propane-fueled forklifts were replaced by battery-electric vehicles.
• All of our premises are Led-lighted.

 

 

WELLBEING

PG Flooring uses products that are safe for both consumers and the environment, and our 100% UV-curable coating is guaranteed to reduce ambient air emissions. The low solvent, formaldehyde, and VOC (volatile organic compound) content of the varnishing products used on our flooring eliminates any risk to human health.

VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOC) EMISSIONS

Quebec standards : 480 à 780 grammes/litre
GS-11 standard : 100 grammes/litre
Results for PG prefinished : Does not exceed 10 grams/litre of product
Results for PG pre-oiled : Does not exceed 17 grams/litre of product

GREENGUARD GOLD CERTIFICATION

All our prefinished solid wood products, as well as our pre-oiled product Sanibel have been GREENGUARD GOLD certified since 2017. GREENGUARD certified products are certified to GREENGUARD standards for low chemical emissions into indoor air during product usage. For more information, visit ul.com/gg.