What you might consider a surface made for feet is your kids-whole-body playground, bed, desk, art studio and clothes hamper. So if you’re thinking about creating a healthy room that’s also eco-friendly, the floor’s not a bad place to start. Best of all is bare floor - carpet manufacture and disposal are major pollutants; and carpet traps dust, mold and allergens that do children no good. But if you want your baby to play on a soft, warm surface, there are options -  read on. 

Synthetic Carpet
Remember Saturday mornings spent sprawled on spongy wall-to-wall, watching TV? Most likely it was synthetic - made of nylon, polyester and polypropylene, it was more affordable than wool, less itchy and miraculously stain resistant. But now we know that synthetic carpets release a toxic mix of formaldehyde, VOCs, benzyne and toluene into our indoor and outdoor air; trap dusts, molds and other allergens; siphon petroleum for their manufacture; and clog our landfills with four billion worn-out tons of non-biodegradable wall-to-wall per year. Still, things are looking up for synthetics on the eco front.
The greening
• Green Tag Plus carpeting uses lower-toxicity adhesives and padding.
• Some manufacturers are recycling old carpet (if you’re replacing old synthetic, ask your supplier about pick up) and making new backings out of recycled materials - check out Flor (www.florcatalog.com), which has a reasonably priced low-VOC child-specific line, FLORKids, that includes Disney themes.
The greenest
• Pop-bottle carpet, made by, among others, Mohawk. PET, the plastic created from recycled soda bottles, is soft, tough, naturally stain resistant (and so gets no chemical treatment) and around $15 per square foot. And because synthetic materials absorb dye more readily than natural materials, it comes in a rainbow of saturated and pastel hues.

Wool Carpets and rugs  
Wool is more eco-friendly than synthetic. At an average $40 per square yard, it’s a bigger investment, too. But it lives far longer, so you can save money – and landfill - in the long run. And wool is also warm and insulating, so you spend less on heat bills and reduce your fuel waste. More on the plus side: Wool’s a renewable resource (the sheep keep growing it) and it’s biodegradable.
The greening
• Companies carrying the Wools of New Zealand mark (woolsnz.com) are touting more environmentally friendly wool carpets - they use water-efficient processes for scouring the raw wool and low pesticide use where the flocks graze. Meridian’s fun Viewpoint series of New Zealand wool rugs was created especially for kids, and is based on children’s drawings.
The greenest
• Carpet that’s undyed (it can take as much as eight gallons of water to dye one pound of fabric), uses nonpolluting vegetable dyes, or is recycled. (If you plan to buy your baby a small rug, consider splurging on colorful, soft mats made out of old woolen sweaters, from Abundant Earth.)
• Nonchemically treated and non-mothproofed wool (try Earthweave).
• Backings made of natural jute fiber or latex adhered with natural glues.
•  All-rubber nonslip pads.

Cork
Soft and durable, cork’s heyday was in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so if you’re aiming for a mod look that’s also enviro-friendly, consider the classic warm-toned tiles. Or check out some new styles: You can find cork in a variety of colors and patterns from sources like Globus (corkfloor.com).
The greening
Cork flooring is a recycled product made from what’s left after the bark of the cork oak tree has been turned into wine-bottle stoppers. It’s naturally nonallergenic and fire-resistant, and if sea levels do rise, your floor will survive - fishermen use cork to float their nets. Cork can be used for insulation too; in the long run your energy bill savings could offset the cost of installation, around $4 per square foot.
The greenest
• No- or low-VOC water-based adhesives and urethanes for gluing and finishing your tiles.

Cotton rugs
Just because cotton  is natural doesn’t mean it’s always green. It is sustainable and biodegradable; but cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops, and dying it guzzles water and can pollute streams.  
The greening
Environmentally friendly cotton products are going mainstrem. Walmart is selling recycled-cotton shag rugs (around $2.25 per square foot).
The greenest
• Recycled or organic cotton, undyed or vegetable-dyed.
• Get lots of green cred with Amish organic cotton rag rugs woven from scrap fabric, at A Natural Home (anaturalhome.com).
• Green your rug even more by using a natural rubber grip pad underneath it (1earth1design.com).