Wood

=Wood Products = Over the last century, as technology has progressed and newer materials are developed, there has been a significant decrease in the number of consumer products made from wood. Some of this change can be attributed to stricter environmental regulations regarding timber harvesting practices, but the majority can be traced to economics: substitutes, such as plastics, concrete , and steel are often touted as cheap to manufacture, convenient to use, and requiring less maintenance over their lifetime than wood. Wood products, on the other hand, are often denigrated as much for their susceptibility to damage by animals, insects, rot, and fire, as they are for the hazardous chemical preservatives used to combat those vulnerabilities. There is a lot of back and forth over which product causes the least harm environmentally. The debate is greatest among the building trades, where increased demand and human contact with wood preservatives is more a concern, but other products, such as the ubiquitous utility pole, are also increasingly part of the discussion. Many environmental advocates feel that standard wood harvesting practices are detrimental to forest health and that removing the trees contributes to global warming. However, several studies indicate that wood products may use less total energy across the lifecycle than several of the proposed substitute materials. A Swiss study found, for example, that the rate of lifetime energy consumption of steel poles was four times the rate of wooden poles, even when the researchers over-sampled the wood poles to cover differential load limits and time in-service. When comparing carbon dioxide emissions that could affect global warming, wood actually has an advantage over other materials since some of the energy used for harvesting and processing uses renewable resources. Additionally, trees can be replanted and help negate the amount of carbon in the atmosphere through a process called carbon sequestering. During their growth phase, trees "draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, release oxygen back, and use the carbon to produce wood and leaves. Through this process, trees remove or 'sequester' large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even when cut down, the carbon remains within the trees until they decay or burn. So, while leaving a forest "in-tact" may benefit that particular forest ecosystem as a whole, overall ecosystem health may be harder to gauge.   Concrete, steel, and plastics are often brought up as alternatives to wood, but they each have their own drawbacks. In 1992, Erlandsson et al, reported that concrete, steel, and aluminum products lead mainly to emissions in the air, while treated wood leads mainly to leaching of preservatives. In contrast, the processing of steel and plastic (which is derived from petroleum) relies more heavily on fossil fuel energy and non-renewable resources. An analysis of steel vs. wooden frame homes conducted by the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM), found, for example, that ?while total energy in the completed steel-frame house was only 17% greater than the completed wood-frame house the steel-frame design used 281 percent more non- bioenergy than the wood-frame design.?  Not surprisingly, each side advocates that their material is the most cost effective, most durable, and most environmentally friendly option for the future. Knowing the actual costs and benefits of each material over its lifetime is essential to solving this debate. It is only when considering //all// the inputs of energy and outputs of waste across the lifespan of the product that we can truly compare the economic and environmental costs of each choice.  **References:**  American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA). //Green// //Building// //Fact Sheet: Wood Products and Carbon Sequestration//**.** American Forest and Paper Association, Washington, DC. Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM). June 1, 2004. Phase  I Final Report, Module A, Forest Resources  Pacific Northwest And Southeast. Erlandsson, M., K. Odeen, and M.-L. Edlund. 1992. Environmental consequences of various materials in utility poles A life cycle analysis. Doc. No: IRG/WP/3726-92. Inter Res. Group on Wood Preserv. Cited in: Levan, Susan. 1995. Life Cycle Environmental Impact Analysis for Forest Products. Forest Products Society, Madison, WI.  Kunniger, Tina and Klaus Richter. 1995. ?Life Cycle Analysis of Utility Poles, A Swiss Case Study. In //Proceedings of the 3rd International Wood Preservation Symposium : The Challenge Safety and Environment//, 6-7 February 1995. Cannes- Mandelieu France.  Niemi, Ernie and Anne Fifield. "Seeing the Forests for their Green: Economic Benefits of Forest Protection, Recreation and Restoration" (Prepared for the Sierra Club, August 2000). ECONorthwest, 2000. []