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Most of the treatment processes and uses of treated products occur outdoors. December 8, 2018 Sustainability David Wertheimer 3 Comments This post is motivated by a number of conversations that have made me think about the potential contradiction in my environmentalist tendencies and my using wood as my primary medium. Unexpected Complexities of Swearing in Braille, Tips for Creating the Ultimate Indoor Workshop, Fabricating Custom Treads for a Circular Staircase, Shameless (Cross) Promotion: Stained Glass & General Contractors, Four Nifty Steampunk Display Technologies. Suitable for all commonly used types of wood species. equivalent to smoking a half pack of cigarettes. We understand the real-world challenges our customers face in complying with so many regulations while striving to operate profitably and meet schedules. Alexander von Bismarck, has been on the timber mafia's trail for years. is a definite no-no, for the very bad toxins that this releases into the air. Or - not quite as tragic but just as bad for our health - lower-income regions that rely on wood for cooking and heat have very bad air quality, as I personally witnessed in parts of the Himalayas in mid-October. Residential, Commercial & Industrial Indoor Air Quality Assessments, Testing and Recommendations Read more However, understanding a material’s impacts at every stage of its life is essential—and LCA studies consistently show that wood has a favorable environmental profile compared with functionally equivalent products made from other materials. Is the structure temporary or are you building it to last? Goodbye, failed early attempt at a round coffee table, c. Nov 2017. So while it’d be better to not purchase anything at all, if you do, use wood! Wood treated with anything (paint, insect protection, stains), or composite wood products (plywood, particle board, etc.) Protects wooden floors without substantially changing the natural, unfinished colour of the wood. Wood is strategically located throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in a variety of sectors including oil and gas, refining, chemicals, water, mining, energy, industrial plants and facilities and communications. Trees - like animals, and ecosystems in general - can also become endangered or at risk. Translating that to my business - I purchase wood by the "board foot", which is one square foot of lumber 1" thick, or one twelfth of a cubic foot. For more than 125 years, Wood has delivered comprehensive services throughout North America to support our customers across the complete asset life cycle. The Middle East is a key growth area for Wood. And at least from a carbon neutrality perspective - though not from a localized air pollution or a deforestation perspective in certain regions - wood is an acceptable fuel. We reduce your risk, liabilities and costs, and we look for opportunities to enhance both environmental quality and your bottom line. Wood products are produced from trees, a naturally renewable resource. In a world of complex environmental and infrastructure challenges, Wood applies ingenuity, innovative technologies and customer focus to deliver balanced solutions that meet your specific business priorities. And many of these materials don't involve cutting down a tree. Our success depends on feeling part of a team with people around us that we can rely on. So while the bonfire alone isn't carbon neutral, in the relatively short lifespan of the tree, the growth-to-bonfire process is carbon neutral. For a much more scientific and detailed analysis of hundreds of materials commonly used in construction and elsewhere, check out this paper. Bark, trims and sawdust are used as an energy source to help power wood production facilities. In attempting to assess the environmental impact of wood energy provision and consumption, it was also necessary to consider the environmental impacts related to the provision and consumption of alternate forms of energy. All of these will be topics I cover in future posts. Incredibly beautiful. Read more Capabilities Is Using Wood Bad for the Environment? This produces soot & ash which isn’t great for the local air quality but - on a small scale from limited camp fires and bonfires - has fairly modest impact. Wood has been present in the Caspian region for over 20 years. Big projects - such as the 24 oval mirrors for the Southern California carousel rebuild - use a few hundred board feet (about 1 cubic meter). > Hover over the bars for more detailed information. In today’s complex regulatory environment, the need for a reliable and innovative partner to guide infrastructure development, permitting and compliance is greater than ever. We have maintained a presence in the region for over 7 decades; helping design, build, operate, maintain, and modify some of the world’s largest and complex facilities. Wood is a focused supplier of consultancy, engineering and project services to the world’s O&G, mining, clean energy, water and environmental sectors. It takes … Repairable. They range from local land use to global climate change, and from applications in smoky kitchens to electricity generation in large-scale power stations. Our footprint in Africa continues to expand. Is there a particular environmental concern you have with forestry management, or consuming wood products? Wood products that have been installed and are used in an appropriate way tend to have a favourable environmental profile compared to functionally equivalent products out of other materials. About Wood Wood provides performance-driven solutions throughout the asset life cycle, from concept to decommissioning across a broad range of industrial markets, including the upstream, midstream and downstream oil & gas, power & process, environment and infrastructure, clean energy, mining, nuclear, and general industrial sectors. Wood is better for the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and other impacts. Through which, the environmental impact of wood production from the very first state of harvesting to the end of life of the product, can be studied and compared to other materials. Decorate and finish to your style. Entire organizations exist to help manage, educate, police, and certify producers. If you're familiar with your typical eight foot 2x4, there's about 100 of them in a cubic meter. A dry environment may require different wood than you would use in a wet environment. The durability or longevity factor should be another consideration. Our culture supports us to perform better and look for opportunities to move our business forward. But beyond that, does this contribute to global warming, or other types of air pollution? If you want a lamp, or some coasters, or a shelf, you could purchase something made of plastic, or glass, or any of a hundred other materials. We combine our strong knowledge of the area, global expertise across the entire asset life cycle and experience required to operate successfully in the harsh and complex environment of the world’s largest land-locked body of water. This represents about 0.8% of the growing stock. In fact it should be promoted on environmental grounds. Simple and practical, Original Wood Environment may be applied directly to prepared wood using a roller: it does not need to be polished, by hand or buffing machine, to produce a perfect finish for your wood floors. Easy to shape, adapt and work with. Modern Functional Home Decor by David Wertheimer. Natures renewable material. The annual wood harvested for all purposes is about 3.5 billion cubic meters (1991), though estimates of wood used for burning have wide ranges. John Wood Group plc, commonly known as Wood, is a British multinational energy services company with headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland. In fact, wood has a far lower embodied energy and carbon content than almost every other material that might be commonly used for home decor. Indeed, there’s a lot more to responsible harvesting for forest management. Wood may be the most environmentally friendly material available for building homes or businesses. By linking policy to applicable regulations and project-specific permit conditions, we assist our customers with major infrastructure developments, environmental audits, permits and other required project approvals. Unlike ore, wood is a renewable resource. The annual "roundwood" (officially counted wood not used as firewood) harvested is 1.5 billion cubic meters (1998). We combine our strong knowledge of the area, global expertise across the entire asset life cycle and experience required to operate successfully in the harsh and complex environment of the world’s largest land-locked body of water. For this reason, it seems parts of China - including Tibet - have outlawed wood stoves, and the U.S. EPA has similarly banned inefficient wood burning stoves a few years back. So you could make 150 of them from a cubic meter of wood - or in 1998, if I had cornered the wood market, I could have made 225 billion of these lamps, enough for every person on the planet to have about 30! Wood Energy and Environment. But that’s not to say we can cut down all the trees: cutting down one tree from a forest is different from harvesting the entire forest! But, many of these materials are far worse for the environment overall taking into consideration all of the “embodied energy” and “embodied carbon” that goes into creating an object. Environmental aspects of wood energy use are diverse. In larger scales, however, there are clearly bad effects: Northern California briefly took the crown of having the world’s worst air quality in mid-November due to the tragic Camp Fire; breathing the unfiltered San Francisco air for a day then was equivalent to smoking a half pack of cigarettes. Your information will never be sold or shared. Backed by an 85+ year history of operating within the Asia Pacific region, Wood is proud of its longstanding partnerships, underpinned by our proven ability to optimise asset performance, drive capital efficiency and deliver for our customers. I periodically host a bonfire to get rid of scraps I accumulate - primarily construction-grade framing wood, but also occasionally scrap hardwood that I just can't find a home for in either my own projects or via with my fellow artists. An average 2000 square foot house uses the equivalent of roughly 1875 2x4s for framing, so that means that was enough wood harvested in 1998 to frame 80 million comfortable homes. But that’s not a short time process. At Woods Environmental Services (WES) we believe a healthy environment is critical in ensuring we live in healthy and sustainable communities. It is also durable, adaptable and can have positive impacts on a building’s occupants. So, here’s my attempt to square this circle. For example, the average sawn hardwood has about 7-10% the energy per kilo that the typical plastic contains, and about a quarter of the embedded carbon. 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