Very few products have stood the test of time as well as linoleum flooring. It’s no small feat to still be around after 100 years. Look what happened to the Ford Model T, which was also introduced in 1909. It’s even more remarkable that Armstrong linoleum is essentially the same product now as it was then -- made from renewable raw materials and recycled content.

Genuine linoleum, not to be confused with vinyl, is a classic. Invented in 1863 by Englishman Frederick Walton, it is still completely relevant today. Linoleum is made from natural, rapidly renewable materials. Linseed oil, which comes from the flax plant, is the primary ingredient. (In Latin, linum is the word for linseed and oleum means oil.) Other ingredients include wood or cork powder, resins and ground limestone. Mineral pigments provide the rich colors.

The first linoleum factory was established near London 1864, shortly followed by German factories in the 1860s. These first products were generally a utilitarian brown color, but by the 1880s, famous architects and artists worked with the manufacturers to create ornamental florals, geometrics and even Persian rug look-alike patterns.

Linoleum took considerably longer to catch on in the United States than in Europe -- until Armstrong. Armstrong began in 1860 as a two-man cork-cutting shop in Pittsburgh, Pa. At the turn of the 20th century when the company already was 40 years old, Armstrong adapted to changing conditions while at the same time sticking to the business it knew best. It ceased discarding postindustrial cork waste and began recycling it -- first into corkboard insulation and then into linoleum.

Armstrong was the first company to manufacture linoleum in the U.S. in 1909. Although Thomas Armstrong didn’t realize it at the time, his decision to reuse cork scraps salvaged from bottle-top manufacturers was a very “green” choice, and it inaugurated a heritage of sustainability.

Initially considered a utilitarian product, good for a kitchen but inherently bland and uninteresting, Armstrong saw other possibilities. On Sept. 1, 1917, Armstrong ran its first national ad for linoleum in the Saturday Evening Post. The page cost $5,000. Armstrong soon began to tout linoleum for every room in the house.

By Aug. 10, 1974, when the company discontinued linoleum production, it had produced 957 million square yards of this material -- enough linoleum to pave a 6-foot wide path to the moon -- and circle it four times! Linoleum’s reputation was and is so strong that today people often refer to all resilient flooring as “linoleum.”

Today’s generation of architects, inspired by the movement toward green building, helped to bring linoleum back into the spotlight in the U.S. after a 25-year hiatus. Linoleum’s attributes suddenly seemed new and in demand -- for example, its high proportion of naturally renewable and high recycled content and its incredible color palette. Today, linoleum is made at Armstrong’s ISO 14001 certified plant in Germany and imported into the United States. In fact, now all linoleum is made in Europe.

Linoleum is enjoying resurgence in large part due to greater environmental awareness of building materials. Green building requirements strive for such goals as increased health and well-being of occupants, better indoor air quality, lower operating costs, reduced maintenance and longer product life. The sum total of linoleum’s positive characteristics, coupled with its sustainable composition, meets the needs of the modern building industry. This explains why linoleum still plays such an important role where designers and architects alike appreciate the product’s sophistication, value and design flexibility.