Rubber flooring company Artigo will produce its flooring collections from 2025 with Helsinki-based materials firm UPM’s BioMotion renewable functional fillers (RFF). By incorporating RFF, Artigo says it is able to achieve CO2 footprint savings of up to 0.5 kg CO2e/sq m and reduce the weight by up to 5% per sq m flooring.
UPM says its fillers are a CO2-negative2 solution for diverse rubber and plastic applications, containing 100% renewable carbon, certified by DIN CERTCO, which is sourced from sustainably managed forests. They support carbon footprint improvements by enabling flooring manufacturers to increase their share of renewable materials in products and reduce the use of traditional highly CO2-intensive fillers, such as precipitated silica, and other fossil-carbon based raw materials.
It claims RFF delivers the same technical performance as precipitated silica in aiding flooring durability and elasticity, with the added benefit of being up to one third lighter.
Artigo will achieve a renewable content share of up to 30% of the total weight of the new products thanks to the addition of UPM’s RFF. Its flooring collections contain post-industrial recovered and consumer recycled material, and also other renewable-based components alongside UPM’s RFF.
UPM will produce its fillers at its Leuna facility. The company is investing EUR1 billion to build the world’s first industrial scale biorefinery in Leuna that will convert sustainably sourced, certified hardwood into next generation biochemicals – enabling the vital shift away from fossil-based to renewable materials across a wide range of industries.
The Leuna biorefinery is part of a broader growth area, UPM Biorefining, which is scaling refineries to produce a variety of renewable fuels and chemicals made from sustainable biomass.