Our Forests
We exclusively use wood as a substrate in our RealWood™ products. Wood from well-managed forests is the best building choice for the environment — it is renewable, recyclable, and it grows with solar energy. Wood is easy to work with and versatile; the little waste it leaves is completely biodegradable. Products manufactured from wood continue to store carbon while regrowth of harvested lands allows additional carbon to be sequestered.
Wood is a totally renewable resource. Concrete (cement), steel and
aluminum come from materials extracted from the land and can never be
replaced. Vinyl and plastic are made from non-renewable petroleum
products.
Wood buildings are often easier to heat and cool, and they can be adapted to energy standards required for large and small buildings in any climate. Wood is a good and natural insulator because of its cellular structure it means it can trap air, resulting in low conductivity and good insulating properties. High conductivity causes thermal bridging leading to increased energy use for heating and cooling, and requiring additional insulation. Steel conducts heat 400 times faster than wood, and concrete is 8.5 times faster.
Research studies consistently rate wood and wood products as needing the least amount of energy to manufacture, and having the lowest impact on air and water quality. Wood is natural so it does not have the toxic byproducts associated with other materials. It takes five times more energy to produce a ton of concrete than a ton of wood and, 24 times more energy to produce a ton of steel. A concrete design produces 1.96 times more solid waste byproducts than a wood design.
Fiber Certification
98% of our Canadian inbound fiber comes from mills that have had their forestry operations independently CSA, ISO, SFI, or FSC certified, some of them more than one. British Columbia is a world leader in third-party forest certification, with 54 million hectares (134 million acres) of certified lands – most of them publicly owned. For the last 20 years, BC Forestry practices have ensured that the reforestation rate has been equal to the harvesting rate providing quality wood products with minimal to no impact on the environment. The three globally recognized programs used in British Columbia – CSA, FSC and SFI – all require that harvested areas are reforested, laws are obeyed and that there is no unauthorized or illegal logging. All ensure that biological diversity is conserved, wildlife habitat maintained – and much more. While we don't do our own logging, we are still aware of the practices of the people who do.
