Green Issues

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

Reasons for using timber

  • Wood is a carbon neutral, the more we grow the better we can balance the carbon equation. We all need to plant more tress especially in the areas of the greatest polluters such as USA, China and India.
  • Trees absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen up to old age typically 1 tonne of CO² and 727kgs of O² for every m³ grown.
  • Harvested trees continue to store CO² through out their product life. Europe’s forest areas are helping to stave off global warming.
  • Substituting competing materials for wood means a double positive benefit avoiding CO² emissions saving almost 2 tonnes of CO² per m³.
  • Growing timber uses less energy to produce than competing building materials, avoids pollution and lowers the carbon emissions.
  • Using wood to generate heat and power is carbon neutral and reduces the finite use of fossil fuels and promotes rural economies and rural employment.
  • Forestation provides social benefits and increase employment, contributing to health and well being.
  • Wood is a better thermal insulator than any other structural building material: 15 times better than concrete, 400 times better than steel, 1770 better times than aluminium.
  • Timber can be used to resonate and amplify sound to enhance a whole world of music.

The UK is one of the leading countries in the world to adopt internationally recognised certification schemes to prove the provenance of wood supplies.

You can now buy timber windows with 30 years guarantees. In Germany recently they have passed legislation to phase out the use of PVC windows because they cannot be recycled efficiently. They also take energy from a declining source of fossil fuel.

Using a timber window instead of PVCu saves 50kg of CO² per window and 400kg if you use aluminium. The UK timber trade as a whole uses 70% temperate timber and less than 5% from tropical sources. European timber forests are growing at approx 100 football pitches per hour.

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