At the core of every business, there is a single theme or passion that drives the decisions that are made on a daily basis. Google aims to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. Amazon has a vision to be “earth’s most customer-centric company”, while Apple’s motto is a little more simple, around the idea to “Think Different”.

The Eco Floor Store was created over 7 years ago by our owner and operator, Jared Kress. He knew that he had a chance to create something really special as there was a gaping void in the market. The flooring market offered little to no options for eco-friendly solutions, so he decided to create a company that would have a 100% mandate and focus to what he refers to as “A commitment to the planet”.

Every thought and process at The Eco Floor Store has been designed to promote environmental awareness and conservation through the sale and distribution of eco-friendly products, always designed with the planet in mind.

The Eco Floor Store Products

Since The Eco Floor Store’s inception, the team has taken the mission statement to heart, only sourcing products that meet a strict list of requirements. Everything that you find in our store has at least one or more of these qualities:

-Good for your health

-Promote a healthy lifestyle

-Created from recycled materials

-Rapidly renewable

-Recyclable or made from sustainably harvested sources

Jared always tells people if our products could talk, they would each have their own unique, eco-friendly story to tell you.

The Path to Becoming Eco-Friendly

Before embracing the company that has become The Eco Floor Store, Jared had a great job that paid handsomely. It was a stable position that was protected by a union, offering him full benefits and a pension.

When Jared reflects back on that transitional time, he can now recognize why so many others fail to accomplish what The Eco Floor Store team has.

“One of the hardest parts of following your passions and dreams is facing the fears that come with uncertainty. I knew that I wouldn’t truly be happy until I immersed myself into a business that made our world a better place to live in.”

At first, Jared looked for flooring products that fit with the profile of being eco-friendly and quickly discovered that the key to success would be diversification. The Eco Floor Store could never put all of it’s apples into one basket, as the world of eco-friendly products is constantly changing and evolving.

This led the team to the International Surfaces Event in Las Vegas, where the latest flooring trends were showcased annually in January. Every year at the event, we made connections with some incredible suppliers that created offerings with the environment in mind. These suppliers brought a new trend to light for The Eco Floor Store –  environmentally friendly wall coverings.

Eco  Floor Store was one of the pioneers in British Columbia in environmentally friendly wall coverings, striking a deal to represent two collections of products in the province that are still very popular to this day. From that point on, The Eco Floor Store has focused solely on the most unique and jaw dropping floor and wall covering products that the world had to offer.

What we learned Early On

When The Eco Floor Store first started out, we thought our target audience would demand flooring solutions such as “99 cent” laminate, which we could easily source from our eco-friendly suppliers. We soon discovered that our clients were just as passionate about the appearance and quality of their furnishing as they were about environmental issues. They wanted the best possible products that still worked towards making our planet a better place to call home.

The Eco Floor Store completely pivoted and changed its business model. We shied away from “cheap” products and focused on sourcing solutions that had great warranties, superior environmental compliance standards, and still didn’t cost a fortune to provide.

Eco-Friendly Influence on Interior Design

It was when we started to embrace the best quality products on the market that we realized that retail sales were driven by architectural and design trends, so we began attending IDS West (the largest interior design show in Western Canada), showcasing all of our eco-friendly wall coverings and flooring.

Our team literally visited every relevant interior design firm in BC, pounding the pavement and developing relationships as we went along. We knew that with our products in the hands of these firms, their clients would benefit from utilizing our eco-friendly products, and as a result, the planet would benefit as well.

Large Project Success

The Eco Floor Store team soon found themselves in the thick of it after securing a massive flooring project for the Telus Garden Center in Vancouver. We supplied over 120,000 square feet of eco-friendly wool carpet for that project and made the pleasant discover that some big corporations cared about the environment too.

It all started from a google search at the Design Agency, the specifier for our product in this development. We knew we had captured our small share of the market at that point. The plan then became to leverage that success and build on it.

Soon after that project, another great opportunity presented itself with one of our favourite clients, BRITCO, whom we had completed a few eco-friendly projects with before. BRITCO asked if The Eco Floor Store wanted to be the exclusive flooring partner for the 2012 PNE Prize Home, which would feature designs by Jillian Harris. We jumped up and down behind closed doors, then calmly called back and said yes! This developed our relationship with Jillian, which carried us over into the world of television.

Eco-Friendly Flooring Meets Television

Eventually when Jillian started her new show, “Love it or List it Vancouver” she asked if the team would be interested in working with her and her design team, supplying eco-friendly products where required. It was another enthusiastic yes from the The Eco Floor Store team.

The world of television caught notice of us and we have since completed projects with Property Brothers, Tiny House Nation and a new show called “You Can’t Turn That Into a House”.

What We are Working on Today

Fast forward to today and you can find our team working with Todd Talbot from Love it or List it, on his most recent project, continuing to forge the way for eco-friendly materials and furnishings.

The Eco Floor Store team cherishes the relationships that we have established thus far and pride ourselves knowing that we have brought significant exposure to eco-friendly products in the building and design worlds. Our team loves our products and making a positive difference in the world, and can tell you the specific details of every single offering we have.

As we look towards the future, we will continue to immerse ourselves in the television industry and find unique methods and media outlets to spread the word about eco-friendly products. Have we peaked your interest? Come in and visit our team in Surrey to explore unique design offerings and brainstorm ideas on how we are going to save the planet together with your next project. It’s what we do!

We are The Eco Floor Store, it’s nice to meet you!