A couple of things to start...first i am seriously considering cork, not so much because it is green but because of qualities of it...easy to stand on, insulating, .etc. Second, I am a forester...not a logger, not a sawmill person, but a forest management person that works in an area where products cut here end up in hardwood flooring, and to a lesser extent furniture and cabinetry I suppose. But flooring is the main local value-added mill.
The notion that bamboo (because it can be harvested in 3 years, almost like an agricultural crop) or cork (because the tree is not killed) are more green than hardwood flooring is not necessarily true and perhaps just the opposite.
Sustainable forest management principles can be used to harvest trees, provide local well-paying jobs with strict health and safety requirements, often unionized, allow the forest to be renewed, maintain wildlife habitat values and even enhance habitat for many species, and, in the case of most species grown for hardwood flooring, done so without the need for herbicides, fertilizers, plantation type forests plus distance to market is much less (for the North American market anyways) so less pollution, etc.
What is the health and safety protection for workers harvesting bamboo or cork...are they fairly compensated, how is wildlife habitat affected, are the areas more like a natural environment or is more of an agricultural field, are indingenous peoples way of life dramatically altered for little or no compensation and what energy/pollutions costs are there for bringing that material from thousands of miles away? I'm not claiming to know the answers on those points but I do know that much of the North American native solid (and engineered) wood floors stack up pretty well in those regards.
So, how can you tell if the wood product you are buying comes from a well-managed forest from a social and environmental perspective? Those that bear the FSC (forest stewardship council) label - look for it, mark down the code from the certifying , check it out on the internet of that company and you may be able to determine where the wood actually came from if you like. If you don't see certified flooring, or whatever wood product, ask your retailer about it.
Even red oak/maple/birch/beech hardwood flooring that is not FSC certified may still be as green or greener than some of the so-called green products like bamboo and cork. FSC is an independant certifying body and certification is voluntary for companies and mills...it doesn't mean the forest was not well-managed...their is just no proof of it. There are other certification systems out there that does some, most of or slightly different than FSC but still gets to pretty much the same thing...sustainably managed forests.
The notion that cutting a tree down to make a product (i.e. killing a tree) makes that product not green is ridiculous. In the forest I help manage, we remove more of the diseased trees first, releasing younger, healthy trees, keeping many larger trees, trees with holes in them because many of our wildlife species need those trees, a number of trees that produce valuable food (e.g. not cut all the beech or oak down to maintain a supply of beechnuts and acorns for wildlife).
Looking at the forest and the trees....
