Environmental Concerns

One of the most important contributions wood door manufacturers can make to today's green building initiatives is to produce a durable, sustainable product that remains functional throughout the lifetime of the building and to adapt their manufacturing techniques to ensure environmental responsibility.

Architectural wood doors meet a variety of sustainable building credit requirements of green building programs including recycled content, rapidly renewable materials, regional availability, certified wood, and low-emitting materials. Particleboard and agrifiber cores, for example, as well as high density fiberboard crossbands are manufactured from 100 percent pre-consumer recycled material. Agrifiber doors may also comply with rapidly renewable material and regional availability requirements for manufacturers located in the Midwest.

Third-party certification of wood door products ensures environmental claims are valid. GREENGUARD Certification provides assurance that doors are manufactured and assembled with low-emitting materials, thereby contributing to healthy indoor environments. A key wood certification system is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®), which promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.

The main objective of FSC certification is to ensure that FSC certified material is tracked through the supply chain. This FSC Chain of Custody (COC) is the path taken by raw materials, processed materials and products, from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution. Manufacturers are FSC COC certified and allowed to label products with the FSC trademarks.

Architectural wood doors also have significant potential to assist with LEED credits. Under the LEED New Construction (NC) rating system, recycled content, regional materials, rapidly renewable materials, certified wood and low-emitting materials credits are all relevant to architectural wood doors. All door manufacturers can assist with the same LEED credits. The amount of assistance can vary based on the construction of the doors. The thickness and width of the core, crossband, stiles, rails, faces, and edges has an effect on the compliant percentages because of the weight differences. These differences are often very slight. Also the location of manufacture and source of materials can affect the amount of regional material available. For FSC doors, one manufacturer may use higher amounts of FSC certified material, while another may use higher amounts of FSC Controlled Wood materials. Every manufacturer is going to have differences that will affect the amount of LEED credit assistance.

Increasingly, manufacturers are making it easy for architects to gauge the LEED potential of their products and complete the paperwork necessary for LEED submittals. Some manufacturers offer calculators that enable architects to explore LEED credit assistance available through specific products. This can take the form of an on-line tool that facilitates comparison of various door types and associated LEED credits. Architects can choose the desired core type and environmental option, which will generate the percentages for all LEED credits applicable to wood doors, even calculating mileage for regional material credit based on the project zip code.

Alternatively, architects can work from LEED credit needed to available products that yield those credits. In some cases, manufacturers' on line capabilities allow architects to create custom LEED specifications including LEED requirements along with aesthetic grade, face material, color finish, fire-rating, and other parameters. In some cases, supporting documentation and manufacturer verification needed for LEED submissions, with a downloadable project specific LEED compliance letter, is available from the manufacturer's website.

Architectural Wood Doors for Performance and Aesthetics

Properly specified, wood doors rank high in terms of performance, aesthetics, and environmental characteristics and can distinguish any building project. A sound understanding of door components, materials, construction methods, and performance standards will aid the designer in selecting the right door for any client goal, be it for standard commercial settings or for enhanced fire protection, superior acoustical performance, or high-traffic applications.

Headquartered in Holstein, Iowa, VT Industries, Inc. is North America's leading manufacturer of architectural wood doors, VT Dimensions countertops, and stone surfaces. The company's three divisions serve customers from nine manufacturing facilities strategically located throughout the U.S. and Canada. For more information, visit the company's website at www.vtindustries.com