A Portuguese Treasure Hunt

A Portuguese Gold Coin

A 16th century Portuguese trading ship was found off the coast of Namibia recently. It is “the most exciting archaeological discovery on the African continent in the past 100 years” according to Webber Ndoro, the project manager of the excavation. The excavation has lead to the discovery of priceless artifacts like gold and silver coins, elephant tusks, and cannon balls from Portugal. You can read more here.

Portugal has had an exciting month. Not only have 16th century Portuguese treasures been discovered, but the countries’ capital, Lisbon, is home to a modern day treasure! Cork, from the Cork Oak Tree, is one of Portugal’s very own natural treasures, and is being displayed at the Berardo Museum in Lisbon.

“Design Cork for Future, Innovation, and Sustainability” is the exhibition that displays 37 original Cork designs. But our “treasure” has been re-vamped! This exhibition is home to new and creative ways to use cork. Products like lamps, furniture and even handbags are on display!

Cork is an incredibly sustainable material. It can be used for so many things, and as we can see in the exhibition, we are just starting to use Cork to its full potential. The designers who have created the products on display are like the archaeologists who discovered the Portuguese shipwreck. They are pulling one great design after another out of their own ocean of creativity. And although the sunken treasure cannot be reused, cork can!

Innovative Cork Products

That is why we are so proud of Amorim for partnering with government and other organizations like APCOR, and INETI to develop and support this project. And as always, we love our Wicanders Cork Oak Floors. Cork flooring is just one of the great uses for Cork. Wicanders offers a healthy, sustainable, environmentally friendly option for green home design. Let us know what your next cork discovery is… we are ready to dive in!

Until the next treasure hunt…Team Wicanders.

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Award-Winning Children’s Hospital Chooses Our Cork Flooring for Play Area

Hi, everyone!

Team Wicanders here with more exciting news from the world of cork floors…

The need to create a safe, calm, and comfortable children’s play area has led to the installation of Wicanders Series 4000 cork flooring within the central atrium, at the heart of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton, UK.

Equally exciting, the busy pediatrics hospital won an International Health Care Award, in recognition of its innovative design and promotion of health and wellbeing.

Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital

Cork Oak Flooring in the Central Atrium

Cork flooring’s natural warmth and ability to absorb sound helps to create a comfortable play area, where children can unwind and just be kids. The layered assembly of our flooring uses a central cork layer to create a cushioned effect that, unlike hard flooring, absorbs step and impact sound, so the pitter-patter of their little feet doesn’t disturb other little kids that are busy getting well.

Cork Oak’s durability and ease of maintenance also makes our floors a strong choice, as it was essential that the chosen flooring could withstand high levels of wear and frequent cleaning. Plus, cork flooring’s excellent environmental credentials complemented the hospital’s forward-thinking design.

Our Series 4000 is ideal for high traffic commercial and public areas, comprising a cork agglomerate core, natural wood layer and hardwearing surface to deliver high durability. As a really neat side benefit, cork oak floors are naturally hypoallergenic, antimicrobial, insect repellent and anti-static, which is great for big and little kids alike.

Now isn’t it exciting to see how cork, as a fully sustainable and recyclable material, can help the heath care sector to build green?

Best…
Team Wicanders

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Consumer Reports Says ‘Green gets better’

"Harmony"

We think so too. Our R&D department always pays close attention to Consumer Reports. They just rated [08/2008] our Series 1000 HPS (High Performance Surface) Harmony cork oak flooring from our Originals Collection. In test results for the sunlight and stain category Harmony received 2 Excellent ratings, 1 Very Good for resistance to scratches, and 2 Good ratings for water and dents. The really cool thing about our HPS finish is its durability and resilience, which is ideal for high traffic residential areas, commercial and public spaces.

Now, Consumer Reports calls our HPS layer ‘plastic’, which could give you the wrong idea…actually HPS is based on nano beads technology, where extremely tiny beads are embedded in the top layer. When compared with the standard finish this gives the whole HPS surface improved properties such as scratch, slip, scuff and stain resistance. Which is really good protection for our precious cork oak floors…and it carries a whopping 25 year residential warranty and a 15 year commercial warranty. Pretty good, huh?

Mentioned also, it seems as if some manufacturers of cork floors simply place a photo of cork between the surfaces of their product, but they point out that we actually use “the real stuff” (cork). How amazing is that?

"Series 1000"

Just one more thing…Consumer Reports doesn’t seem to have a category for sustainable, renewable, natural cork oak floors, so they placed Harmony in the ‘Plastic Laminate’ category. But you know the difference, of course, and the reason why our cork floors are definitely worth the price.

If you frequent our blog, you know that we make continuous efforts in R&D to optimize the shared value of every ounce of cork oak. We look forward to seeing ratings on our latest design, performance, and eco-friendly innovations: Cork Plank, Xtreme WRT and Acrodur®.

Until the next report…
Team Wicanders

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Cork Fights Back…Gotta Love That!

Our team is always searching for great articles about our beloved cork oak trees, the Montado forests, and the Alentejo region of Portugal, and we found one yesterday by Tom Cannavan. On his wine pages he has recently posted an extensive article on his trip to Amorim, the manufacturer of our Cork Oak Floors. Entitled “Cork Fights Back”, it is a great read, and we think you’ll enjoy it as we did.

He quotes Amorim’s Director of Communications, Carlos de Jesus, saying “It hurts me when I hear people say ‘cork is dead’. They don’t know the people in the cork farms; they don’t see the faces of the farmers who’s lives depend on their few hundred cork trees.” Tom goes on to give his own opinion about what he sees. “Standing in the forests and talking to the people involved in farming cork does change ones perspective.”

Tom ends his story with the following: “There is something intrinsically ‘right’ about drawing the cork from a bottle of fine wine. It is part of the ritual, and part of the magic. Finally, companies like Amorim have acted, and are doing their bit to restore that magic. The rest is up to us.”

We hope you check out this story and tell us (and Tom Cannavan) what you think! Love to hear from you.

Until the next story…
Team Wicanders

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A Grown Up Field Trip…Green Design with Cork Oak

You can learn a lot on a field trip. Maybe even have some fun. Grade school field trips came up last week in a team brainstorming meeting. Some experiences totally depended on which parent was assigned to your group, and how much roaming, clowning around, or simply being a kid you were allowed to do. Others recounted going places that were probably informative and important, but not much fun to a 5th grader.

Our team captain recounted a scenario which included getting lost at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and almost missing the bus back to Maryland. That would have been cool today with travelling exhibits like “Real Pirates” which tells the true story of the Whydah, a pirate ship that was found off the coast of Cape Cod in 1984 by underwater explorer Barry Clifford. But back then you couldn’t slip into the IMAX® to see what they describe as “The Dark Knight’s larger-than-life images, state of the art digital surround sound, all-encompassing screens and patented theatre geometry—designed to put you IN the movie.” So much for 5th grade field trips!

Today we want to treat you to a grown-up field trip. It’s appropriate for kids, too, so if you have one or two looking over your shoulder, be sure to invite them into the action. You’ll all have fun. If you don’t have kids, the grown-up kid in the next office might want to join you…

Now, a field trip could take all day or more, but this one is only three minutes, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip.

Here’s a fascinating look into the other kind of useful and beautiful things talented designers are creating with cork oak. Click Here.

It feels really good to know that when you create, design, fashion, use, or walk on cork oak, someone in Portugal or Spain did not cut down a tree, or harm a habitat to harvest the bark. We’ve written about this before here, so we won’t belabor it again, but it makes us feel really good about what we do. Any mostly, that’s why our teachers took us on field trips…not just to have fun, but to help us feel good, learn, and appreciate the work of others.

So, if you get a chance, take a look at what our talented designers at Amorim have created for your home, or office, or hotel or hospital…cork oak floors that provide warmth, silence, comfort, and a healthy environment to live in.

Until our next trip…
Team Wicanders

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The Mighty Penny—A Lesson in Conservation & Sustainability

Walking over the Mississippi River bridge from Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa in the dead of winter with the wind blowing in your face at 25 knots or more isn’t exactly pleasant. For the lack of one shiny penny, a person dear to us tells the story of why she always stops to pick up a stray penny. Seems bus fare across the bridge was one penny more than she had that winter morning many years ago. So she walked to her job and never again turned a cold shoulder to bending down and picking up the pennies so many people simply ignore. Valuable lesson indeed.

“Penny, penny, bring me luck. I’m the one who picked you up,” is a childhood chant repeated hundreds of times over the years in our friend’s household, and at the NeoCon show held recently in Chicago, Illinois, the shiny penny once again took center stage at our Wicanders Cork Oak Floor display. Simple as it may seem, the Xtreme WRT finish that protects and enhances our floors does an amazing job of shinning dirty, old, forgotten pennies into their once pristine copper beauty.

Imagine taking the edge of a penny and scratching it across the surface of a cork oak floor, again and again, using as much elbow grease as you can muster. Imagine if you did the same thing to a recently installed hardwood floor. That’s just what our R&D professionals did at the show to demonstrate the benefits of our WRT finish. To us, the results are still amazing, even though we’ve seen the demo a lot.

Our Xtreme WRT finish contains tiny ceramic micro beads. When the penny is rubbed along this surface, all its accumulated dirt, grime, oxidation and years of residue is transformed into a powdery substance that is simply brushed off the floor with the quick swipe of a tissue. Our cork oak floors remained untouched…no scratches, no scuffs, no anything. Attendees at NeoCon couldn’t believe what they had just seen. As you might imagine, the hardwood floor—put to the same test—had a “hard” time, and wound up with enough scratches to call in the refinishers.

So, you may wonder what this Xtreme WRT surface feels like, and if it takes away from the natural beauty of the cork oak. Although it is the strongest varnish ever produced, Wicanders cork oak floors remain soft and velvety warm to the touch, unlike the typically slippery and cold aspect provided by usual floor varnishes.

If you are a frequent visitor to our blog, you already know about the environmentally-friendly properties of cork oak, and how the Montado cork oak forests are crucial in minimizing the world’s ecological footprint by the rentention of nearly 4.8 million tons of the world’s CO2 each year. Now you also know that Wicanders cork oak floors with WRT will most likely last for generations, as will our shiny penny story and childhood penny chant.

Let us hear what you think about the penny test. And remember to pick up and conserve the stray pennies you come across each day. They may save you some serious walking.

Until next time…
Team Wicanders

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Wicanders: ‘Remodeler’s Choice’ product for May

The votes are in… In an online poll conducted in January, Qualified Remodeler readers have chosen Wicanders Cork Oak Floors as the ‘Remodeler’s Choice’ product for May.

The Wicanders flooring collection generated the highest amount of requests of any other product featured in the January issue. It was chosen by readers because cork oak is a sustainable resource that balances natural beauty and environmental responsibility, and it also absorbs acoustic vibrations, reduces allergens, and prevents thermal transfer, which reduces energy costs.

“What makes Wicanders different from other cork flooring is the finishes that come overtop of it,” explains Ronit McGuthrie, marketing manager for Wicanders. “For instance, we sell the Series 100 flooring with a WRT ceramic microbead finish and that makes it different from other residential cork floorings that usually use an acrylic-based varnish on top of theirs. The ceramic makes the actual floor finish much more matte, stronger and more durable than flooring made with acrylic.”

To read the full article, please visit the Qualified Remodeler’s Web site and for more information on our products and to see our latest collections, please visit www.us.wicanders.com.

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