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ARMSTRONG'S NEW BBT QUICKLY GAINING ACCOLADES AS FIRST SUSTAINABLE & AFFORDABLE RESILIENT FLOORING MATERIAL

Armstrong’s innovative BioBased Tile™, a new flooring made with patent-pending technology that reduces the use of fossil fuel, is winning praise from designers and architects for its game-changing combination of sustainability and affordability. MIGRATIONS™, the first product in the line, was launched 1st quarter 2008.

“Environmental evaluation of a product is now given equal weighting with design, performance and cost in product selection,” says Dominic Rice, vice president, Commercial Resilient. “Customers told us they did not have a product available to them that had a good balance of all these criteria, especially cost.”

Armstrong MIGRATIONS™ BioBased Tile is made from limestone and a binder that uses its patent-pending polymer BioStride™ which is made from rapidly renewable ingredients. Developed at Armstrong’s Technology and Innovation Center in Lancaster, PA, the BioBased Tile uses 10 percent pre-consumer recycled material, diverting waste that would otherwise go to landfills. BBT is FloorScore™ certified to California Section 01350 for low VOC emissions and also contributes to LEED® credits EQ4.3, MR4.0, MR6.0 and depending on project location, MR5.0.

Brown Reynolds Watford is considering using BBT for a large Senior Center renovation and accompanying Recreation Center for which they had originally specified standard vinyl tile. “The BBT palette corresponds precisely with what we already had in mind. It’s great to see bright colors in addition to the muted colors we’ll be using, including reds and oranges. I do not have to compromise in terms of design – and the client gains an even more durable, great-performing – and ‘greener’ product.”

In addition to its environmental attributes, MIGRATIONS BioBased Tile features enhanced performance traits. In tests comparing it to standard composition tile, MIGRATIONS tile demonstrates five times more impact resistance, twice the indent resistance and two-and-a-half times more crack resistance over subfloors.

Seventy-five percent of the business for TJNG Partners is in healthcare, a category that historically has used a lot of vinyl composition tile. According to Ashleigh Pflüger, LEED AP, partner & interior designer, “The best thing for our market and our clients is that if someone has 60 facilities and acres and acres of VCT, BBT is not a departure either aesthetically or in terms of installation and maintenance.”

Pflüger notes that many facility managers have been working for the same hospitals for 20 or 30 years; it behooves her to provide something that installs as easily and maintains as well as standard composition tile. And, Pflüger is confident that BBT will perform well. “Armstrong has a great track record, and I know Armstrong will assure its performance. Not every manufacturer sees it this way, and some are content to promote a ‘me-too’ kind of product. That’s not what I want.”

“Armstrong chose to introduce the BioStride technology in a commercial composition tile because more than one billion square feet of VCT is installed in the U.S. every year,” said Frank J. Ready, executive vice president, Armstrong. “We’re applying the same manufacturing process to make MIGRATIONS BBT as we use to make composition tile, which expands the availability and affordability of biobased technology to the largest product category in the hard surface commercial flooring industry.”

Like all Armstrong resilient floor products, MIGRATIONS BioBased Tile is FloorScore™ certified to meet or exceed the nation’s most stringent indoor air quality requirements for low emissions of volatile organic compounds. It also contributes to the U.S. Green Building Council’s credits for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.

Compared to vinyl composition tile (VCT), a 20,000 square foot installation of Armstrong MIGRATIONS BioBased Tile saves energy and natural resources equivalent to 72 gallons of petroleum.

For more information, visit www.armstrong.com/flooring.

LINKS TO HI-RES PHOTOS:

Armstrong Commercial Flooring Migrations BioBased Tile in earth beige T3509, lemon squeeze T3522, blue (Education) waters T3526 and red berry T3524
Education
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Healthcare
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For more information and tips, visit www.armstrong.com or call 1-800-527-5903.

About Armstrong

Armstrong World Industries, Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of floors, ceilings and cabinets. In 2006, Armstrong’s consolidated net sales totaled approximately $3.4 billion. Based in Lancaster, Pa., Armstrong operates 39 plants in 10 countries and has approximately 13,000 employees worldwide.  For more information, visit www.armstrong.com.

Armstrong Floor Products and its powerhouse family of brands – Armstrong, Bruce® Hardwood Floors, Armstrong™ Hardwood Flooring and Robbins® Fine Hardwood Flooring – offer the most extensive portfolio of flooring products available, including branded vinyl, laminate, Genuine Linoleum™, hardwoods and ceramics for residential and commercial applications. Armstrong resilient products are recognized for contributing to indoor air quality through FloorScore™, a new voluntary certification program administered by the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI) that identifies flooring products that meet stringent air quality requirements for low-emitting building materials. More information about Armstrong is available on the Internet at www.armstrong.com.

All trademarks owned by AWI Licensing Company or Armstrong Hardwood Flooring Company.
EcoScorecard is a service mark of Viridity, Inc.

Contact: Michele Zelman Cherry Leaf Communications mjzelman@cherryleaf.net phone: (718) 859-6766	Contact: Carlene Moloney General Manager - Direct Consumer & Trade Marketing cfmoloney@armstrong.com phone: (717)396-5579 fax:  (717) 396-5029