What Goes Around Comes Around

In researching Forbo's Marmoleum Composition Tile (MCT) for the July issue of EBN, I found out that the product wasn't actually all that new. We had first covered the idea of it in 1998:

"Forbo Industries also has some exciting new developments. The company is introducing a new linoleum tile this December that will be thinner (2.0 mm) and priced to compete more directly with VCT. This 13" by 13" (330 mm x 330 mm) tile is being targeted specifically toward K-12 schools." (EBN Vol. 7, No. 9)

Curious, I got in touch with Tim Cole, the director of environmental initiatives and product development for Forbo. He told me that the product met with limited success ten years ago, but that the market for environmentally friendly products had grown, particularly for schools, so MCT's chances of making it as a product now were quite good.

LEED for Schools, the Collaborative for High-Performance Schools (CHPS), and other programs are bringing green schools into the mainstream. Parents are worried about their children's exposure to chemicals at school, including those present in vinyl composition tile (VCT). Enter MCT.

In one sense, MCT is a product made mostly of marketing. It's the same material as Marmoleum, only thinner and less expensive. At the same time, MCT's similarity to VCT in size, thickness, and cost may make it more acceptable to a market that tends to stick with what it knows. The guaranteed installed cost is pretty cool, too. So maybe Forbo was just ahead of its time ten years ago, and now the time is right.