 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 | |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| |
Why Wood is Good - Environmental Benefits
|
|
|
| |
Wood has many benefits that make it the ultimate "green" material. In addition to the fact that it's renewable, sustainable and abundant, wood can be recycled and is fully biodegradable. It has the least environmental impact when compared to steel and concrete — in terms of both its manufacturing process and its use inside a home. And, because growing forests absorb carbon dioxide and release clean oxygen, they help fight global warming.
Wood is renewable, sustainable and abundant.
- North American forests cover about the same area of land as they did 100 years ago — even though 97% of all homes are framed with wood and wood products, and North Americans use more wood per capita than anyone else in the world. This is due primarily to advances in agriculture (which have enabled us to grow more food on less land) and sustainable forest practices.
- According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, North American forests expanded by nearly 10 million acres during the 1990s, and another two million acres between 2000 and 2005.*
- For those who want added assurance, there's the current trend toward sustainable forest certification. In the U.S. and Canada, more than 225 million acres have been independently certified — which is equivalent to more than twice the size of California.
Wood is recyclable and biodegradable.
- Most major cities have wood recycling programs, though they tend to be separate from the curbside programs that collect paper, plastics, glass, etc.
- There is an increasing trend to disassemble old homes and use the wood to create new products, such as flooring made from old wall panels.
- If the quality isn't great, recycled wood can still be chipped for particleboard or other composite products, mulched for landscaping or animal bedding, or burned for energy.
- Since wood is natural, products that do end up in landfill sites are fully biodegradable.
Wood's manufacturing process has less environmental impact than steel or concrete
- According to Life Cycle Assessment(LCA):
- A steel wall requires three to six times more energy to extract, manufacture and construct than a wall made of wood; manufacturing the steel wall also uses 25 times the amount of water as a wood wall, and releases three to six times more carbon dioxide.**
- Manufacturing concrete generates two to three times more carbon dioxide than wood and five times the solid waste.**
A wood framed home has less environmental impact than a home framed with concrete or steel
- A study conducted by the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) compared the energy required to construct, maintain and demolish homes framed with wood and steel in Minneapolis, and homes framed with wood and concrete in Atlanta. According to the report:
- The homes framed (respectively) in steel and concrete required 17% and 16% more energy to construct than the matching homes framed with wood.
- The global warming potential (measured in terms of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions and the length of time these substances linger in the environment) was 26% higher for the steel framed home and 31% higher for the concrete framed home than the matching homes framed with wood.
Growing forests help fight global warming.
- As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas thought to be a major cause of global warming. The carbon is stored until the wood burns or decays, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. As a result, the cycle of wood use and forest regeneration is an important tool in the fight against global warming.
*Source: State of the World's Forests, 1997 and 2001, and the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005
**Source: Canadian Wood Council
Why Wood is Good
Energy Efficiency
Environmental Benefits
Structural Integrity
Fire Safety
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
