Wood - the environmentally
correct flooring choice !
Wood Flooring
International believes
that wood, as a building material, IS
THE ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT CHOICE !
When making a flooring choice for
instance each specific choice has an
environmental impact.
For example, wool
carpets require sheep. Sheep require
grazing lands which are typically
created by converting forests to
grasslands. Sheep are also large
producers of methane gases - one of the
leading causes of the "greenhouse
effect". Sheep are also domesticated
introduced animals who take over range
from native species. So what, on the
surface looks like a natural choice has
many hidden environmental
costs/tradeoffs.
Every flooring material
as well has its own costs. Synthetic
carpet from petroleum based products has
all the environmental costs associated
with oil including extraction, energy
for the conversion and the lack of
biodegradability, plus a short life
cycle. Ceramic tile has its own costs
and vinyl its own set as well. Rather
than go into comparative costs of each
here please read what the experts say:
Why we believe wood is
the correct choice:
As background, our start
in the wood business was as low impact
loggers in Vermont using horses. We
logged on land that was once open
grazing land, as Vermont at the turn of
the century was 80% agricultural land
and only 20% forested. Today the
reverse is true and Vermont fights a
losing battle to keep the remaining 20%
in agriculture as family farming gives
way to corporate farming out West. All
the land we selectively logged had
abandoned fence rows running through it,
testimony to the power of nature to
regenerate. From this background we know
that:
-
Wood is a true renewable -
forever ! It is essentially a product
of solar energy which through the process of
photosynthesis trees take carbon out of the
atmosphere and fixate it into their cellular
structure thereby creating wood. Young growing forests
are carbon sinks as they take increasing
amounts of carbon and fixate it in their
growth. Mature forests are neutral as
the natural decay matches new growth.
Taking trees and making wood products,
which are then incorporated into
building structures and do not
decompose, you are creating carbon sinks
thereby lessening the greenhouse effect,
provided of course that the forest is
left to regenerate itself.
-
Wood is has one of
the lowest energy requirements for
processing, making it a further optimal
building material choice.
-
Cradle to Grave Life
Cycle - Wood is biodegradable, it can be
burned and it rots quickly and it can be
recycled into other uses - another
environmental plus.
-
Wood has excellent
strength to weight ratios and insulating
values - another environmental plus.
While, we believe all
the other, (non wood), flooring
materials have greater environmental
costs than wood, we also are very aware
that wood has its own set of
environmental costs. These issues
include:
-
the impact of logging on the
ecosystem including water resources, flora
and fauna, and local communities.
-
logging roads which
can facilitate subsequent incursions
non-native species and then also
settlers which can accelerate the
conversion of the forest to agriculture
-
high grading - which
is hunting for high value species and
taking only those while leaving behind
the lesser known species. This impacts
larger areas of forest.
We know that any use of
the forest adversely impacts the
"natural" forest. We also know that
there are varying degrees of impact.
They can range from the worst practices
of poaching logs from national forests
all the way through to excellent
sustainable forest management plans.
Such plans take into account
environmentally sensitive areas, the
flora and fauna, the local communities
and the watershed and operate on long
term land use tenure plans.
We believe that good
sustainable forest management operations
in countries that also have sufficient,
protected forever, natural forests, good
forest management techniques for native
production forests with long term land
use tenure as forests, as well as
plantation forests for fiber production
on formerly degraded lands, (as opposed
to converting native forests to
non-native plantation species), yield
wood that is the superior environmental
choice.
That being said, how do
you know where your wood is coming from
? Many countries have excellent
sustainable forest management. Many that
we have worked in have exemplary
management, including Ghana in West
Africa, Australia & Sweden. Other the
other hand many countries have poor
records, but even in these countries
many of the mills we work with have
their own forest lands which are as well
managed privately as any in the world.
What all this means is that there is no
assurance that your wood comes from well
managed sources unless it comes from a
nation that well manages all its forests
or that a 3rd party independent
certifier has assessed and regularly
audits the forest management practices
of your sources.
Hence the role the
Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) plays. This
organization is widely acclaimed by most
environmental organizations as the
standard bearer for ensuring
sustainability. There are also other
certifying standards organizations
springing up including
Sustainable
Forestry Institute (SFI).
To compare these organizations and
others
click here.
FSC Certified
Flooring Products:
On this site
Wood Flooring International offers
FSC certified flooring, which
we deem to be the highest standards
certifying organization.
We also offer additional flooring from
countries such as Australia which will
never be FSC certified but whom we feel
have excellent forest management, as
well as flooring from mills undergoing
certification as well as from mills who
are not certified. It does not mean
that their forestry management practices
are bad, it just means that these mills
have not been certified by the FSC.
Recycled Wood
Products:
In addition, we also
offer recycled/reclaimed wood which is
sourced either from old buildings/mills
being salvaged and/or from post
industrial waste as a byproduct from
another operation and is waste.
"Wood Alternative"
Flooring:
Wood Flooring
International also offers
"alternatives to wood" choices such as bamboo
which is actually a fast growing member
of the grass family as well as
palm from
coconut plantations which have aged
beyond other productive life and are
being replanted with new trees.
