When you are at the grocery store and can only afford to go organic on a few items, you should go green on the most porous vegetables with the most surface area (ie. possible toxins) per volume. The vegetable that meets that criteria with flying colours is broccoli due to its tree like structure. We can apply that ‘Broccoli Principle’ to your home when furnishing a renovation or new build. If you are worried about toxic off-gassing or VOCs, but only have the budget to go green on a few items, focus on your porous products like carpeting, couches, and textiles. This is because of their tendency to trap fumes in their soft fibers. Keep your eyes peeled for third party low-VOC certification systems like Green Label, to keep your home and family healthy.
One great example is FLOR, an innovative modular carpet system with a Green Label Plus rating for low VOCs, and it also tackles green from a few other angles. The carpet tiles are modular, so you can easily replace one square if you get a catastrophic stain, instead of having to throw out the whole rug. They have a closed-loop return and recycle program, and their carpet tiles are made from recycled content and renewable sources. Plus they are a lot of fun! You assemble a series of carpet squares of varying colours, patterns, and textures to create custom rugs, runners, or wall-to-wall designs. In our office we used a combination of tiles which range from 41% – 100% recycled content face fibers. You can see more pictures of our lounge’s finished area rug on our office renovation page.