A Good Hard Look at Wood

Building materials don't get any greener than wood, the only building material that is renewable, recyclable and produced entirely by solar energy. Its performance in building projects has long established wood as a practical, affordable and efficient material, especially in home construction.

Courtesy Sustainable Forest

The growing emphasis on sustainable construction is spawning a wide range of co-conscious innovations in wood, from forestry and manufacturing practices to building design and new product development.

Naturally, Jim Snetsinger, is an advocate for wood, particularly for sustainable forestry practices that promote diversity. As chief forester for the Province of British Columbia, he is responsible for setting the annual harvest of 223 million acres in western Canada, an area twice the size of California.

"We are trying, here in B.C., to manage natural landscapes, and to keep those landscaped as diverse as possible," Snetsinger says. "Diverse forests are more resilient, more disease-resistant and support wildlife in ways that plantations cannot. We replant with trees native to the area and discourage mono-culture planting. Nor do we genetically modify our planting. We do collect the best seeds we can find so that we reforest with parent material that has the best chance of growing fastest and tallest."

Specifiers today have many "green" options: formaldehyde-free composite wood panels, arsenic-free pressure-treated lumber, engineered products with high-recycled content. Medium density fiberboard (MDF) is manufactured from waste sawdust and is fabricated without formaldehyde. Oriented strand board (OSB) is made from relatively low-cost timber species that are fast-growing and non-controversial. Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) is an engineered wood product manufactured with waterproof adhesives to pressure-bond wood veneers with grains running parallel to the long dimension of the lumber. LVL's demonstrate a greater ability than dimensional wood in long spans. They carry greater loads and do not shrink or deform, like dimensional lumber.

For example, says Snetsinger, the University of Northern British Columbia, which utilizes Laminated Veneer Lumber long spans "has done a remarkable job of building with wood" and has achieved designs in which glue-lam beams substitute for what in the U.S. typically would be steel or concrete beams.