Dongwha Natural Maru becomes 1st Korean wood flooring brand to receive carbon storage certification

Dongwha Natural Maru's Duo Texture Casa natural wood floor / Courtesy of Dongwha Enterprise

Dongwha Enterprise's building materials brand Dongwha Natural Maru said Tuesday it has received official certification from the Korea Forest Service for the carbon storage capacity of its wood-based flooring products, becoming the first domestic wood flooring brand to receive such recognition.

The certification is issued under Korea's wood product carbon storage labeling system, which measures and discloses the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered in wood products made from domestically harvested timber.

The scheme is grounded in the Act on the Sustainable Use of Timber, which promotes carbon storing and other environmental functions of wood.

Five products received certification: the Gangmaru line's Jin Origin, Jin Grande, Jin Grande Square and Jin Terra; along with the laminate flooring line Crogen.

The products store between approximately 34 and 38 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 3.3 square meters — roughly equivalent to one pyeong, a traditional Korean unit of floor area. Installing Jin Origin or Jin Grande Square across a typical 84-square-meter apartment is estimated to sequester up to 956 kilograms of CO2.

Dongwha Enterprise had previously become the first in the Korean board industry to obtain carbon storage certification for all of its board products.

Its particleboard, MDF and HDF lines store 200, 12,000 and 15,000 kilograms of CO2 per cubic meter respectively, contributing to an annual reduction of roughly 480,000 metric tons — equivalent to the annual CO2 output of more than 42,000 people.

"This official recognition proves that our flooring is not only an excellent interior material but also a sustainable product that addresses climate change," a company official said.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.