Is the green movement anti-rilood?

By David Johnston

jects originate from a certified, sustainable source, be recycled and/or salvaged.

While there are a few sustainable wood certification programs in the marketplace, most of these green programs, like the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program only recognize the Forest Stewardship Council's certification as being truly creditable."

ll /TORE and more builders and IYldesigners are coming to the understanding that the Green Movement isn't just a bunch of "tree huggers" in tie-dyed shirts out to save the forest. It's about science. economics, sustainability, and long-term impact on the planet and our ability to manage and use its natural assets. When viewed through the lenses of science and long-term impact, wood is actually preferable by some to other building and design alternatives like steel, plastic and even concrete.

"The people who manage our forests are truly environmentalists," said Victor Vandenberg, Building Materials Distributors, Galt, Ca. "It's their livelihood to ensure forests remain healthy and strong. People are assuming they're cutting down old growth forests-that's just not happening anymore."

"The green movement is definitely not anti-wood," said Larry Percivalle, sales and marketing director for Oakland. Ca.-based EarthSource Forest Products. a wholesale distributor of Forest Stewardship Councilcertified and salvaged wood.

"On the contrary, most people recognize that unique qualities such as being rapidly renewable, non-toxic and bio-degradable, make wood inherently green," he adds.

Whether your standard is certification, post-consumer recycled content or environmental impact, Percivalle believes wood has all the bases covered because most green building programs have high standards that recommend wood used in building pro-

Calling itself "the nation's foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work," the USGBC has established a common standard of measurement to define "green building." One of LEED's primary goals is to "promote integrated, whole-building design practices." It is under the banner of "wholebuilding," looking at the impact of materials over a building's entire life cycle, where we see how "green" trees really are.

"Most of the projects that I see coming out of the green design community incorporate significant amounts of wood," Percivalle added. "In fact, the green building phenomenon constitutes a particularly significant demand for our products."

In fact, a new report by the nonprofit Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials claims wood is one of the most environmentally sensitive building materials for home construction. The repofi claims wood uses less overall energy than other products, causes fewer air and water impacts, and does a better job of the carbon "sequestration" than can help address global warming.

APA's Web site calls wood "the most constructive choice for the environment," but what of the engineered wood APA promotes?

There's no doubt that in green building circles engineered wood is looked at as more affordable than solid timber cut from larger trees, but is it "green?" More and more people are finding engineered wood to be the greenest wood of them all. APA's position is clear: wood is good, and engineered wood is even better.

Again, from APA: "As the world's only truly renewable building material resource, wood is a naturally superior choice from an environmental perspective."

"You're basically taking a lot of waste material and manufacturing a better, stronger product out of it," said Vandenberg. "It makes perfect sense."

Engineered wood products like plywood, OSB, glulams, I-joists, fingerjointed studs and LVL, make more efficient use of the available resource. According to APA, "Engineered wood can be manufactured from fast growing, underutilized and less expensive wood species grown in privately managed tbrests. That helps safeguard older forests that as a society we have chosen to preserve." Engineered wood also eliminates many of the defects found naturally in wood, "thereby improving upon many of the material's inherent structural advantages."

Not only is engineered wood made from wood chips and flakes from smaller, faster-growing trees. it uses less volume of wood to the same job.

Engineered wood is a perfect example of the green building industry more efficiently using our resources to create products that extend the resource supply and create less waste.

Currently LEED has only established guidelines for commercial and high-rise buildings with residential guidelines expected to come on board in the next few years. In the meantime, local organizations have been filling the gap for national green guidelines by offering builders education, technical and marketing assistance, and programs using checklists with points for using green methods and products. Most of these programs are voluntary, but a few jurisdictions require participation.

As the building industry continues to create Droducts from available resources, and guidelines encourage builders to use "good wood," this will no doubt show that certified wood and engineered wood offer green building some of its greenest pastures.

- David Johnston is president and Jbunder of What's Working, a green building consulting firm. He presents his expertise across the coltntr,y and internationeilly to groups including real estate professionals, builders, developers, city/state officials, civic organizations, utilities, and universities. He can be r