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Appropriate selection of construction materials plays a major role in a building's sustainable profile. The study sets out a comparative life cycle assessment of indoor flooring systems of different nature. The flooring systems consisted of coverings and, where required, bonding material and/or impact soundproofing material. The following coverings were assessed: inorganic (natural stone and ceramic tiles), polymer (carpeting and PVC), and wood-based (laminate and parquet) coverings. The life cycle assessment scope was defined cradle to cradle, i.e. product stage, transport to the construction site, installation of all construction elements, use, and valorisation by recycling, as end-of-life transition scenario towards a circular economy. In the use stage, three scenarios were defined as a function of pedestrian traffic intensity, which determined maintenance, repair, and replacement operations and frequencies. The environmental impacts of the coverings product stage were taken from previously assessed and selected Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), as these are standardised public documents devised to provide environmental life cycle information. The method adopted in the study suggests that, though the use of EPDs as information source is interesting, erroneous conclusions may be drawn if the EPDs are not comparable and/or if the comparison is not made in the building context. The results indicate that the flooring systems with inorganic coverings performed best in the global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, and abiotic depletion for fossil resources impact categories, whereas laminates performed best in the abiotic depletion for non-fossil resources and ozone layer depletion impact categories. The carpet flooring system performed worst in every impact category except photochemical ozone creation potential.

The Spanish tile manufacturing sector has grown steadily over the years covered by the three benchmark studies, carried out in 1992, 2001, and 2007, from which data are compared in this paper. In that period, production output doubled, although since the last study was published, the situation has undergone a radical change and current production output stands at a level similar to that of 1995. Nevertheless, despite the world economic crisis, which has also severely impacted the ceramic wall and floor tile sector, it is worth noting that the sector’s environmental parameters have demonstrated a constant and positive trend, both in companies’ individual environmental performance and in the actual manufacturing processes itself. To a large extent, this situation was forced upon the sector as it had to adapt to numerous environmental regulations, which in general terms call for harsher and more stringent conditions than before. In this sense, the adoption of IPPC regulations, which affect practically the entire ceramic tile sector, and the approval of EU Directive 2003/87 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading were significant factors.El sector de fabricación de baldosas cerámicas ha crecido de forma continuada durante los años que abarcan los tres estudios cuyos datos son comparados en este informe, 1992-2001-2007, ya que la producción se ha duplicado desde el primer al último estudio, aunque si se considera el periodo del último estudio hasta la actualidad, la situación ha sufrido un cambio radical estando ahora mismo en niveles de producción similares al año 1995. No obstante, a pesar de esta crisis económica mundial en la que se ha visto arrastrado el sector cerámico, merece la pena destacar una constante evolución positiva en todos los aspectos relacionados con los temas medioambientales, tanto en aquellos aspectos relacionados con el comportamiento ambiental de las empresas como en los relacionados directamente con el propio proceso de fabricación. Esta situación en gran parte ha sido forzada por la adopción de numerosa normativa medioambiental, que en líneas generales ha supuesto un endurecimiento de la legislación existente. En este sentido merece la pena destacar la adopción de la normativa IPPC, normativa que afecta prácticamente a la totalidad del sector de baldosas cerámicas, y la aprobación de la Directiva 2003/87/CE, de comercio de derechos de emisión de gases de efecto invernadero.