News

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) has recently awarded five Wicanders cork flooring product lines its prestigious GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified® product performance certification.

GEI is an independent, non-profit organization that oversees the GREENGUARD Certification ProgramSM and establishes indoor air standards for products, environments and buildings.

"We are pleased to welcome Amorim Revestimentos, as a participating manufacturer in the GREENGUARD Certification Program,” stated Marilyn Black, Founder of GEI. "With the Wicanders Cork Floor product achieving this certification, Amorim Revestimentos continues to show its commitment to good indoor air quality.”

In the last 130 years, Amorim Revestimentos has been the environmentally conscious world leader of the cork industry and it is proud of being the manufacturer of Wicanders Cork Floors.

Amorim’s cork products are uniquely balanced between the creation of wealth and the protection of the environment. The cork industry takes a natural raw material, extracted cyclically from trees without ever harming them, and turns it into high value-added products. Moreover, it is important to point out the role of cork oak forests in the preservation of biodiversity, in the fight against desertification and in the retention of CO2.

The CO2 retention capabilities of Portugal’s cork forests are estimated to be 5%, or 4.8 million tons, of the country’s annual emissions. Wicanders products retain the CO2 that would otherwise be contributing to global warming.

The GREENGUARD Certification Program is voluntary and identifies specific products that have been tested to ensure that their chemical and particle emissions meet acceptable indoor air quality pollutant guidelines and standards. Corticeira Amorim products were tested for over 2,000 potential chemicals in state of the art stainless steel environmental chambers, following global ISO standards. As a result and extension of the Group's existing environmental commitment, CORTICEIRA AMORIM is able to offer the most environmentally sensitive products on the market— true value-added!

In keeping with its commitment to environmental protection, health, and innovation, Amorim Revestimentos, in an exclusive partnership with BASF—the world’s leading chemical company—has launched a new generation of cork flooring using Acrodur®, a purely water-based eco-friendly binder that contains no solvents, such as the commonly used phenol-formaldehyde or urea-formaldehyde resins that give off emissions. Acrodur®, which significantly reduces off gassing, is now available in all Wicanders products.

Posted on February 04, 2009 at 4:25pm.