As the "build green" movement gains steam, there are more and more green and eco-friendly flooring options out there! No longer do homeowners need to accept chemicals outgassing from their carpets, or be responsible for the destruction of old-growth forests in choosing hardwood floors. There are loads of affordable, environmentally friendly alternative out there!

Carpeting: consider non-toxic, natural fiber carpeting. Some examples:

• Earth Weave produces pure wool, completely bio-degradable carpeting with a primary backing of hemp and cotton, natural adhesive from rubber trees, and jute secondary backing, over a wool carpet padding.
• Nature's Carpet offers a line of natural fiber, non-toxic and biodegradable floor coverings made of woold with jute backing.

Wood: If you like wood floors, consider using either reclaimed or sustainably harvested wood:

• Eco-Friendly Flooring offers a full line of both reclaimed and sustainably harvested wood flooring, including pine, mesquite, douglas fir, antique beech, American Cherry, Heart Pine, Antique Oak, Antique Chestnut, Antique Red Oak, and sustainable Oak, Hickory, and Walnut.
• GreenFloors specializes in sustainable wood products from forest that are certified by the FSC, and offers Brazilian Cherry and White Tigerwood, at prices from $6-$9 per square foot.
• A company called Southern Wood Floors brags "we harvest buildings, not trees'" to produce antique heart pine for flooring. "Rescuing" wood from older structures, the company then re-mills the wood to create floors, cabinetry and other products.
• EcoTimber provides a full line of FSC certified sustainably harvested engineered wood flooring as well as reclaimed wood flooring, including pine, oak, chestnut, maple, walnut, and cherry.

Wood Alternatives: There are some exciting new, fast-growing alternatives to wood being used now for flooring, such as bamboo and cork.

• Cork Flooring is eco-friendly, easy to maintain, warm and comfortable to walk on, and provides unusually good thermal and acoustic insulation. Cork is very durable, and is harvested by cutting the bark from the tree. The tree itself is never cut, and can renew its bark in as little as 3 years, making this a very renewable resource. Cork flooring is available from such suppliers as www.ecofriendlyflooring.com , www.greenbuildingsupply.com , and www.corkfloors.com .
• Bamboo flooring, running from under $3 per square foot to upwards of $6 per square foot. Bamboo is a rapidly renewing resource, with a 3-5 year harvest cycle, making bamboo a great sustainable flooring choice. The downside to bambo is that bamboo flooring is often manufactured with adhesives that contain urea formaldehyde resin. There are more evironmentally friendly suppliers, however, such as www.greenfloors.com, and www.naturalfloors.net ,which produce bamboo floors with no formaldehyde.

So, when it's time to replace that old carpet, or install a gleaming new hardwood floor, take a little time to consider; save a tree, and eliminate toxic outgassing in your home by investing in green, eco-friendly flooring!