Best Tile Cares about the Environment

As the leading distributor of tile and stone products on the East Coast, Best Tile strives to promote manufacturers that exemplify environmental stewardship.

What makes tile Green

Happily, our industry represents a hallmark of sustainability.  Best Tile is proud to partner with factories that have achieved the prestigious Eco-label designation and operate under ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standards. These standards require manufacturers to recycle waste streams, use closed-loop water systems and submit to third-party certification.

For projects with LEED requirements, Best Tile partners with manufacturers that offer locally sourced raw and finished materials, work with up to 65% recycled content, and strive to adhere to evolving industry standards such as Green Squared.

  Natural Resource

Our products are green first and foremost because they are inherently durable.  Created by the Earth, stone is one of the longest lasting natural products.  The expected lifetime of tile often exceeds that of structures in which it is installed.  Our products have a smaller environmental impact because of fewer repairs, removals, or replacements over a buildings useful life.

  Durable with Minimal Waste

In contrast, the same cannot be said of carpet, wood and vinyl.  Tile and stone lasts up to five times longer than such surfaces.  Installation is less wasteful because our products can be ordered to exact quantities.  Other flooring products cannot be ordered this way and produce waste, in addition to requiring periodic replacement.  With minimal replacement needs, tile and stone become the most economically advantageous flooring products to use.  Importantly, tile and stone have a post-consumer role, continuing their useful lives as fill for construction sites and ground material for road beds.

  Manufacturing Process

Tile comes from highly available raw materials such as basic minerals and clays.  Best Tile sources from factories that use modern, natural gas-based firing processes with significant attention to reduction of particulate emissions, high levels of wastewater re-use, and efforts to include pre and post-consumer recycled waste in their production.  Natural materials are sourced near the factory, which in combination with high-efficiency natural gas machinery, further reduces the environmental impact of transport.  We have confidence in saying that our tile has comparatively little contaminant impact on our planet.

  Improved Air Quality

Tile is hygienic, does not emit Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and is a positive influence on indoor air quality because it does not absorb or emit pollutants like other flooring materials. Tile can play a role in temperature stability by absorbing the sun’s rays and retaining ambient heat.  In addition, common cement-based setting and grouting materials generally do not contain VOCs or other chemicals.  Once installed, a tile or stone room becomes a completely inert flooring system, one which does not support bacterial or fungal growth or absorbs VOCs and other chemicals from surrounding materials.

  Recycled Content

Glass tile is becoming more eco-friendly in its manufacturing processes and is antibacterial and antimicrobial.  Many new products incorporate post-consumer recycled glass and are extending their durable life to meet similar standards as natural stone, ceramic, and porcelain.

Many of our tile products meet the U.S. Green Building requirement of 25% recycled content.  Best Tile also strives to ensure that we partner with European manufacturers that not only adhere to similar environmental standards as those that are emphasized by US certifiers, but also have as their goal a proactive stance toward minimizing their impact in their locations of origin.  To this end, Best Tile is able to offer products sourced from factories that have strong European certifications such as from the Italian Green Building Council or that meet ISO standards 14001 and 9001.  Visit a Best Tile store to find out which recycled products fit your needs.