Metropolitan Hardwood Floors (Metropolitan Floors) is celebrating 30 years as a flooring manufacturer and distributor. The company, with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, and showrooms across North America, says it has achieved success in North America by manufacturing floors that are “crafted with conscience.”
Metropolitan says it has long been a leader in environmental compliance and appointed Elizabeth Baldwin as its full-time Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) in 2008, one of the first full-time Environmental Compliance Officers in the wood industry—domestic or import based. Baldwin oversees quality control programs and environmental testing procedures, promotes industry best practices, and provides ongoing compliance training for Metropolitan staff, suppliers, and customers.
“I have spent over 30 years in the international wood industry, traveling to facilities and forests in over 60 countries. For 25 of those years at Metropolitan, I have been ensuring regulatory compliance for all manufacturing activities under Metropolitan’s Clean Floors program,” explained Baldwin. “Clean Floors encompasses every facet of Metropolitan’s manufacturing processes—from forest to floor—and guides every decision made. Today, over 30 percent of Metropolitan’s staff are directly involved in compliance activity and supply chain oversight.”
Metropolitan Floors made its retail debut ers as part of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) Prize Home in the early 1990s. Years after its debut, Metropolitan Floors moved away from retail to focus on manufacturing and distributing and launched its first private label, Kentwood.
Since then, Metropolitan’s floors have been installed at notable landmarks, including The Broadview Hotel in Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver House in Vancouver, British Columbia; and the Omni Viking Lakes Hotel in Eagan, Minnesota. Metropolitan floors have also appeared in some unexpected places, such as the ceiling at Toronto’s Gladstone House.
The company explains the level of detail that goes into the design and production of every floor Metropolitan creates includes destructive testing to exceed industry standards, extensive coatings testing, quality control throughout production, moisture control, emissions standards, and environmental factors based on technical knowledge and experience. The company teaches the mills it partners with about expectations of environmental compliance and encourages them to develop their own policies.
Staying true to its design-forward approach, Metropolitan Floors will release more than 27 new products later this year that feature generous, wide planks, warmer taupe and mid-brown tones, and new finishes.