Woods Vs. Plastics

At a time when common sense and solid environmental values are asking consumers, architects, homebuilders and re-modelers to make educated decisions about the materials they use, wood continues to be the environmentally friendly choice.

How to Build Responsibly

More than 90 percent of the homes in North America are constructed of wood—and for good reason. Wood is plentiful, durable, beautiful, and renewable. In fact, it’s the only building material that renews itself and derives its production energy from a clean source – the sun. In a holistic sense, wood products help safeguard our environment.

Not surprisingly, oversimplification by special interest groups has clouded environmental issues related to deforestation. The result has been increased pressure on architects and builders to choose “green” building products. In some cases, consumers have even boycotted the use of tropical hardwoods. Ironically however, the resultant outcome of these boycotts has increased the rate of deforestation.

“Bans and boycotts serve no constructive purpose in encouraging tropical countries to conserve and properly manage their forests. In the tropics, as elsewhere, forestry must compete with other alternative forms of land use. Bans and boycotts only tend to depress the value of hardwoods and the forests that contain them, thus diminishing the incentives to conserve, manage and regenerate these forests in the face of alternative land uses which lead to their destruction.”
–Tropical Forest Foundation Bulletin # 2

“Some architects frankly admitted that they avoid using tropical woods because it is just too difficult to obtain information about the sustainability of the practices used to extract them. Dr. Jim Bowyer responded that this kind of "silent boycott" may cause a result just opposite to that desired; avoiding the use of tropical woods may cause devaluation which tends to lead to conversion of these forest lands to other uses.”
– TFF News, June 1996

Plastic/PVC Composites

As environmental tensions rise, many consumers have begun to look for alternative materials to substitute for wood. These materials, predominantly plastic/PVC composites, for many reasons, are actually far worse for the environment.

“The employment of alternative materials as a substitute for wood without due consideration can ignore associated environmental impacts of even greater consequence than those posed by the use of wood, whether certified or not. To assure optimum environmental outcomes, require that alternative materials be evaluated carefully and factor in issues such as embodied energy and toxicity. Consider impacts over the full life cycle, including extraction, production, installation, maintenance, and disposal.”
–Policy for the Purchase and Procurement of Forest Products – Certified Forest Products Council

“To promote and reinforce environmentally responsible forestry practices: Require that all material substitutions intended to replace wood be assessed for their full life cycle environmental impacts.”
– Policy for the Purchase and Procurement of Forest Products — Certified Forest Products Council

Life-Cycle Assessment

Progress towards sustainable forestry requires a comprehensive approach. The best way to achieve this is through extensive product comparison using Athena Institute’s Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is an internationally recognized scientific method of examining the total environmental burden associated with a product and its use. It is the only legitimate way of determining actual environmental cost and the most credible means by which “green” product claims can be validated. Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) provides a quantitative assessment of environmental inputs and outputs associated with a product, beginning with extraction of the resource and continuing through manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal.

Studies and models like the Athena Life-Cycle Assessment show that wood is by far the superior choice for building in all categories: total energy used to build, occupy, and dispose of; air and water emissions produced during manufacturing; solid waste generated in production and recovery; greenhouse gases produced during manufacturing; ecological resource use.

Additionally, the production of wood building materials produces virtually zero waste. Mills make wise use of wood, for both economic and environmental reasons. The entire tree is used. Bark is removed and used for mulch and decorative landscaping. First cuts and unusable board feet are recovered or culled for use in engineered wood products. Board ends are cut up and sold as hobby wood. Sawdust and shavings are packaged for animal bedding. In some mills, scrap wood is even used to produce energy or steam to keep the mill and kilns running. Whether it’s low-waste mill management, engineered lumber solutions, culled wood programs, or scrap recovery, economical use of timber and all of its products makes sense in today’s world.

Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace co-founder and founder and chief scientist of Greenspirit, points out that while a material like steel is manufactured in a factory, trees grow naturally in the environment. Trees come from nature and return there to degrade when their life service is complete. Wood recovery programs are common. These programs, often independent businesses, retrieve hardwood mantles, trims, railings, doors, even basic framing timbers from demolition sites and abandoned structures to sell for reuse. “Whenever you buy wood, you send a signal to the forest to grow another tree,” says Moore. When that tree is responsibly grown and harvested, using wood helps regenerate forests and create living habitats, places of beauty, and recreation areas for all of us to enjoy.

Since wood is a renewable resource with high insulation properties, high recycling and resource recovery rates, and low pollution rates in harvesting and milling, wood is considered a sustainable and environmentally-friendly building material.

Material	Wood	Plastic
Resource base	Renewable	Non-renewable (petrochemical based)
Energy source required for raw material production	Solar	Fossil fuel
Comparable energy consumption for production	1	10
Traps carbon during raw material production	Yes	No
Holds trapped carbon in finished product	Yes	No
Increases total carbon present in global carbon cycle	No	Yes
Off-Gasing during and after manufacture	No	Yes
Ability to be salvaged or reused	Yes	No
Percentage of raw material consumed in production	100%
Biodegradability of post manufacture and construction waste	Yes	No (photo-degrades, releasing harmful chemicals into watersheds)
Disposability of post manufacture, construction and life cycle waste	Salvage and Reuse	Land Fill

Even Greenpeace recognizes the hazards of plastic substitutes.

“Greenpeace has clear, systematic steps that we ask building and design professionals worldwide to adopt: Do not use PVC products nor substitute plastic products for lumber.”
– Greenpeace, An open letter to U.S. Architects January 29,1998

The best product for the job.

Not only is tropical hardwood the right choice for the environment, it’s also the best choice for performance. Tropical hardwood is superior to plastic alternatives across the board. Consider this chart:

Material	Iron Woods®	Plastic/Composite
Fire Resistance	Excellent	Poor
Insulation Value	Excellent	Good
Stiffness	Excellent	Poor
Resistance to Sagging	Excellent	Poor
Stain Resistance	Good	Good
Heat Dissipation	Excellent	Poor
Durability	Excellent	Good
Mildew Resistance	Excellent	Poor
Resistance to Slipping	Excellent	Poor
Maintenance Cost	Low	Medium
Service Life	Excellent	Unknown