For more than 100 years MFMA natural wood sports flooring has been sourced from sustainably managed northern hardwood forests that prioritize regeneration to ensure long-term forest health.
In a recently completed USDA LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) for wood flooring the study found that “wood flooring can be considered a carbon-negative material that stores carbon (22.85 kg CO2eq/m2 flooring) for decades and thus can help to mitigate climate change.”
By choosing wood sports flooring instead of alternatives, builders, specifiers and architects can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions with their material selections.
Sustainably sourced wood and wood products offer a viable solution to our global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build toward sustainable development.
MFMA Sustainability Initiative
Play Hard. Tread Light.
The MFMA, established in 1897 as the authoritative source on hard maple flooring, has long championed sustainable forestry. Building on this legacy, the MFMA launched its 2024-2025 Sustainability Initiative, which aims to increase environmental literacy, identify areas for sustainability improvement, and evaluate the environmental impact of choosing maple wood flooring over non-wood alternatives.
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MFMA Sustainability
STEM Pilot Program
Using Sports to Understand Sustainable Forestry and the Environmental Benefits of Hardwood
The MFMA has created a fun and educational STEM program that uses basketball courts (a key forest product) to teach students about sustainable forestry, decarbonization, material science, climate, and the carbon cycle.
Through hands-on activities and engaging content, students gain a deeper understanding of these important topics. The MFMA Sustainability Initiative's Lesson Plan Package - including two full-day lesson plans, a student reading page, observation/data sheet, assessment, and teacher guide - supports the next generation of forest leaders.
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Are we running out of hardwoods?
- About one-third of the United States is covered by forests, encompassing over 818 million acres of the United States (excluding the U.S. territories).
- Every year the forest industry, together with federal and state forest agencies, plants more than 1 billion trees.
- Forest Statistics of the United States 2002 shows that the U.S. grows six times more hardwoods than are harvested each year.
- The American Hardwood Information Center reports the volume of hardwoods in American forests has increased 131% since 1953.
- In fact, the North American Forest Foundation says if hardwood trees stopped growing right now and the same rate of harvesting continued, the hardwood timber supply would last for more than 75 years.
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