The environmental choice Is wood

With Earth Day right around the corner, now is a great time to give some thought to the building products you choose for your home: are they energy-efficient? Are they environmentally friendly? Here’s a short quiz for you:

Which statement do you think is true?

a. Nine out of 10 homes built today are built with wood.

b. Wood is the best insulator against heat and cold.

c. The U.S. has more trees today than it did 75 years ago.

d. All of the above.

If you answered “d”, you’ve done your homework! Wood has been a leading building product for centuries, and with good reason. Wood is more energy-efficient than steel and concrete: it doesn’t conduct heat and cold, so homes constructed with wood framing require less energy to heat and cool, reducing total energy costs. In fact, one inch of wood is 15 times as efficient an insulator as concrete, 400 times as efficient as steel and 1,770 times as efficient as aluminum.

Be wary of newer products on the market claiming to be environmentally friendly just because they’re constructed of recycled material. They require significantly more energy than wood to produce, which ups their impact on the environment far beyond that of wood.

Wood is different. It offers centuries of strength, durability, dependability and beauty. Southern Pine wood products have been around for more than 300 years; the first Southern Pine sawmill was built in 1609 in Jamestown. Since then, wood has continued its hold as the most affordable building material on the market today.

So why is wood the environmental choice? Wood is the only renewable building material. It is regenerated in healthy growing forests that also provide homes for wildlife. It can be treated with preservatives to last for a lifetime. It can be disposed of with no danger to the environment. The manufacturing of wood produces the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions (compared with steel and concrete). Wood products make up approximately 47 percent of all US-made raw materials … yet its energy consumption during production is a mere four percent. Compare this with non-wood alternatives. Finite supplies of ore, petroleum and other materials mean when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Why choose wood? An endless source of trees, less energy to produce and is lost to disease, insects and fire. Another fact: forests in North America have expanded by 10 million acres since 1990, indicate various forestry assessments and environmental impact studies.

Healthy forests equal a healthy environment. Increasing forests have a direct effect on our health: while trees grow, they consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Carbon dioxide accounts for about one-half of the world’s greenhouse gases, which trap solar rays.

It’s worth it to pay attention to what products you choose for your home. Framing, decking, interior flooring, paneling, outdoor projects — choose wood to enhance your home and you’ll be making the sound environmental choice.

For more information on how to use Southern Pine inside and outside your home, and where to buy it, please visit www.spanpine.com.