Sustainable Wood

The University of Florida recently entered their Project RE:FOCUS home in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 competition in Madrid Spain. The Project RE:Focus home blended innovative architecture with sustainable materials to create a zero-energy home.

With a nod to Cracker House design prevalent in the late 19th century Florida, the Project RE:Focus home used innovative Accoya^® wood solar screens to control solar gain in the home. The Accoya wood screens were supplied and machined to spec by Universal Forest Products. A unique feature of the Accoya solar screens is its ability to appear as a façade when closed, while becoming a cover for the porch when raised.

Accoya wood is made from sustainably-grown sources and undergoes a benign, patented acetylation process that permanently modifies the wood to the core. This increases its dimensional stability and durability to beyond that of even the best tropical hardwoods—which is why Accoya wood was chosen for the Project RE:Focus house.

Universal Forest Products carries Accoya wood for demanding exterior applications including decking, siding, windows and doors and outdoor furniture. The shrink and swell cycle of Accoya wood is reduced by 75% or more, as compared to other types of wood, resulting in coatings lasting three to five times longer under normal circumstances. Accoya machines beautifully and, since it is modified to the core, there are no untreated portions of the wood that get exposed to the elements.

The Accoya solar screens were one of the more striking features of the house, making quite an impact with both judges and the general public. The Project RE:FOCUS home won the prestigious Public Choice award, while placing second overall in the Energy Balance category and first place in the Communications category.

You stand back and admire the beauty of the new wood fence you just put up. How long will that nice, warm wood glow last? Depending on where you live and the intensity of the weather cycles, not long. And not long might mean several months. Whether you stain a fence yourself—and for God’s sake, don’t paint it unless you like doing a bi-annual imitation of Huck Finn—or buy “pre-stained” pickets for your wood fencing, remember that the stain will likely fade faster than Clay Aiken’s career.

Some people prefer the weathered gray patina a wood fence acquires from exposure to the elements. For those who want to retain the rich color of freshly hewn fence pickets for years to come, there’s Microshades. ProWood Micro with Microshades is the only wood fencing product to carry a 2-year No Fade warranty, along with its limited lifetime warranty against rot and termites.

MicroShades uses an in-solution pigment (which means it’s part of the pressure treatment process, not an afterthought) that makes for more consistent coloring and better penetration than staining. Plus, the natural wood characteristics are still visible, not stained over. And, since MicroShades uses the ProWood Micro wood preservative formulation technology, fasteners are not a concern—hot dipped galvanized or better work fine.

Click photos to enlarge

We watched for two years as a wood fence in Tomball, Texas (shown above) took all the punishment Texas summers can dish out. The pictures above show a very dramatic difference in weathering. On the right half of the photo is MicroShades and on the left is cedar fencing. The cedar fence is faded and some nail streaking has occurred already. The wood privacy fencing which uses MicroShades, by contrast, looks like it was put up yesterday.

And if sustained beauty doesn’t make you happy enough, you can take pleasure in knowing the process used to make the MicroShades formulation has won numerous green awards, including Environmentally Preferred Product status by Scientific Certification Systems, the National Association of Home Builders Green Product Award and certification from GreenGuard for Children and Schools.

For more close-up views of the long lasting beauty of MicroShades and a quick peek at how it’s made watch the video.
 

High stakes for dealers, builders and homeowners
If you ever want to elicit groans from dealers, just mention FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). Dealers pay fees to obtain the FSC “Chain of Custody” certificate, and then they pay more fees to renew that certification. Now, if you think the dealer groans about FSC are loud, just mention FSC to builders. Since USGBC’s LEED standard accepts only FSC-certified lumber, builders are forced to buy it, often at a premium, to achieve the LEED lumber point. Typically, builders overbuy FSC lumber, mistakenly believing it’s required throughout the entire LEED job. Not true; see below.

Do you get a greener wood with FSC than with other reputable wood certification systems?  Frankly, no. That’s one reason the SFI (Sustainable Forest Initiative) is fighting so hard for LEED recognition. The core of the problem is that USGBC considers SFI a so-called “industry-sponsored program” – and in the eyes of USGBC that somehow compromises SFI’s ability to protect forests.  At press time, BuildingGreen.com reports that the new LEED wood certification draft language would allow for “multiple levels of compliance, and assigns half-credit, full-credit, or double-credit to programs based on the degree of compliance.” FSC of course gets access to the full point. Non-FSC standards would settle for less.

Outsiders may look at SFI’s battle for LEED acceptance as inconsequential. But that’s a misconception. If SFI attains LEED acceptance — through a proposed USGBC benchmark system — it will affect lumber costs for LEED projects, by driving them down through competition. It will also reduce fees to dealers for FSC Chain of Custody certificates. Plus, as SFI’s CEO Kathy Abusow recently pointed out to me, SFI acceptance could bring recognition of all SFI-certified products to the LEED community, from paper to wood fiber of all types.

The Point of the MR7 Point
Today, the battle for LEED acceptance by SFI is focused on the MR7 point. (Yes, I know that wood and wood fiber may also qualify for the MR 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, and 5.2 points, as well as the EQ 4.4 point.) Today, FSC has a monopoly on that LEED MR7 point. If a builder used wood certified by SFI, American Tree Farm, or CSA—to name just three—he would be ineligible for that point. To show you how crazy this has become, here’s a story for you: You could build a stone house and install a fixed cutting board from an FSC source and obtain the same wood-product point as a builder who pays for FSC lumber for a 10,000 square foot home. Plus, to obtain that LEED point, the builder has to prove that he’s bought the wood from a certified FSC Chain of Custody provider, which the dealer must pay to keep current.

The goal of LEED has been to create greener buildings, and it has succeeded in large part, especially in the commercial sector. Kudos to them, and I genuinely mean that. But does the freezing out of SFI (and other standards) foster greener, more-sustainably harvested lumber and wood fiber? No, it doesn’t. The fact is, these so-called ineligible lumber standards achieve equitable results when compared to FSC. (Some argue that FSC is focused more on non-U.S.-based lumber and therefore is inherently compromised as a truly green standard by the carbon footprint of shipping wood products).

The 50% Rule
Let’s say that SFI fails at navigating the USGBC benchmarks for acceptance in the LEED standard. Well, in that case, here’s a perception about LEED. The MR7 LEED point requires that more that 50% of the value (not the quantity) of permanently installed wood and wood fiber be FSC-certified. Some LEED builders have recognized this and they use non-FSC lumber for the framing (“legally” amounting to 49% of the wood value). Then they buy the higher-priced FSC wood products for, say, cabinets, built-ins, and floors, to comply with the MR7 rule.  Even though that rule is public, it isn’t widely known, and I have met builders who mistakenly bid out FSC certified products for every stick in the structure, and paid as much as 20% more for FSC lumber that they weren’t really required to use.

At the end of the day, I hope USGBC opens its wood certification system to other standards, as other green building standards have done.  In my opinion, the FSC system does not demonstrably offer a greener wood product, and all the hoops that mills, distributors, dealers, and builders have to jump through just make it more expensive to build.

An iPod, a Lump of Coal, and Replaceable Trees

If you look across all the green building standards and product-certification systems, one consensus principle that repeatedly comes up is the use of products that are “sustainable.”

A sustainable product lowers pressure on the environment through the use of source materials that are renewable and/or sustainably harvested. The term “sustainably harvested” means the product, or the product’s components, are harvested in a way that doesn’t permanently deplete the source of the material, nor poison or ruin the surrounding area, nor—in detailed analysis—pollute the air on its way to market.

That’s a fairly academic description, so let’s take a practical example. I have an iPod and I suspect you do too. A green product? You bet! By downloading songs off the Internet, I help reduce pollution, because a download avoids the production and shipping of CDs and plastic boxes, and the printing of liner notes. The iPod is green in its application. 

But is the product “sustainable” if the iPod is made in a filthy plant in China and powered by coal generating plants here in the U.S.? In other words, does the manufacture and power generation for the seemingly green iPod poison the air we all breath? In fact it does, thereby ruling the iPod out as a truly sustainable product, its green properties notwithstanding. If you were to power the iPod with hydro or solar, and ensure that the factories are well-run, you’re talking green and sustainable. See the difference?

Let’s take a remodeling example. Consider a high-performance caulk. Let’s say it’s a high-VOC product that is nasty to use because of the fumes. That caulk can be very green indeed, if it stops air infiltration, keeps out moisture, and cuts down on energy costs and mold. But is the product sustainable if the manufacturing process is poisonous? Or if the product risks the health of the contractors, or the occupants who must smell it before the fumes cook off, when they first move in? 

No. So, something can be green in its ultimate application but not sustainable in its manufacture and initial use.

• Performs as a green product
• Has low or no toxicity, and
• Is manufactured in a sustainable manner

That said, sometimes, for lack of choice, you may choose to make a trade off. You pick a product that isn’t very sustainable during production, but is very green in its application. Take a highly durable, high-VOC floor finish. It’s very green in its application and use – because the floor doesn’t have to be stripped and refinished as often – but it’s probably not sustainably manufactured, because the high VOCs contribute to smog and other problems. In this situation, you have to look at the life cycle analysis of the product, and make a judgment of the greenest way to go, on balance. 

Take wood for another example. Wood is clearly a very green building product, but it’s only sustainable if the company that harvests the wood has a sustainable forest plan that doesn’t deplete the source forests, over time and on balance (FSC lumber / FSC wood: FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests). Tropical lumber may be very green because of the durability, but not sustainable if harvested in destructive ways. Some pressure-treated lumber products, such as ProWood Micro, use a treatment process which has received Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) status.

So, for green purists (and that’s a growing number of people) making the judgment of what to use takes research not only of the properties of the product, but of the corporate practices of the manufacturers. If the data is correct, this is a judgment that Americans are increasingly willing to take time for, as they increasingly vote with their dollars for products that are both green and sustainable.

The Southern Pine Council recently published its 2010 guide to specifying pressure treated wood: Pressure Treated Southern Pine – standards, specifications and applications. If you've ever had questions regarding this time-honored product line this document will answer them.

• Attributes of the Southern Pine species
• The pressure treating process
• Types of wood preservatives
• The Use Category system (a specifying guide)
• Code standards and building code requirements
• Design values
• Guide to grade and quality marks
• Fastener and connector recommendations
• Use and handling
• Green aspects of wood in general and pressure treated lumber in particular

Here’s the answer to the question of which brand of pressure treated lumber is best:
Universal’s ProWood^® Micro pressure treated lumber products use a wood preservative process that has received environmentally preferable product status. ProWood Micro pressure treated wood products have gained enthusiastic acceptance in the marketplace and are in thousands of retail locations. Its many features and benefits, including sustainability attributes, fastener advantages and performance, make it the choice of professionals and home owners everywhere.

This alternative to pressure treated wood is surprisingly sustainable. The decking market offers dealers and contractors a clear opportunity that is growing in a number of ways. First is market size: The Cleveland-based Freedonia Group says that decking is expected to grow by about 20 percent annually to become a 3.6-billion-lineal-foot industry by 2011. Secondly, the decking market is growing in sophistication. Decking contractors are no longer banging galvy 10d nails in CCA #2 southern yellow pine, as we did in the 1980s. Today decks are part of so-called outdoor living space, and that has even developed into a designer specialty.

For dealers and contractors alike, decks and deck building material offer good-margin, low-maintenance products to customers, who are increasingly willing to pay premiums for products that they will proudly display in high-profile areas of their homes. Today, although decking is still a product that most general-contractors offer, you are seeing an increased number of specialty deck-only operations, and there is a great opportunity for dealers to cater to them.

Decking in the broadest sense of the word now includes four category of products: All-plastic decking, Wood, Composites, and—increasingly uncommon—Aluminum.

The all-plastic decking products are different from “composite decking,” which contains plastic and fiber (more on that below), and plastic decking breaks down into sub-categories by differentiating themselves from one another by the source and type of plastic, and sometimes by the plastic’s recyclability. The most popular choices of deck plastics break out into five categories:

1. Common HDPE  (#2, milk jugs);
2. Recycled high-density polyethylene plastic (ReHDPE);
3. Polypropylene (think Tupperware);
4. Solid polyvinyl chloride a.k.a. PVC;
5. Cellular PVC (polyvinyl chloride with a foaming agent).

 (It important to know the difference between the types of plastic, because they are also used in composite decking material.)

With so many kinds of plastic, manufactures of all-plastic decks will point out differences in the plastics they use, especially where the plastics come from. Marketers of decking will take great pride in features like “virgin plastic,” or a high percentage of “post consumer resins” (PCR), and even “100% recyclable.” Also, since plastic decking can be manufactured through extrusion (that is, product that is pushed through a mould), even the speed of extrusion can be a selling factor, because a product that is extruded too quickly is considered poorer quality.

Whether you are dealing with all-plastic decking or composites, HDPE is the most commonly used product. It performs very well in most situations, and expands only along its length, like vinyl siding. Plus, it does not swell, as many lumber products will. Manufactures argue that it retains color well. Plus, the all-plastic product is entirely recyclable.

Another product, all-plastic PVC decking generally has resistance to scratching, staining, and fading that is superior to composite decking. But PVC decking has been getting slammed for the toxicity of the manufacturing process, which can release mercury and dioxin. That said, there is a green case to be made for PVC’s performance and durability, and it goes like this: If you use PVC (in all-plastic or composite products), you are less likely to harvest, manufacture, and ship replacement products, which therefore makes PVC a viable alternative to wood. What’s greener: a 30-year plastic or PVC deck…or a wood deck that has to harvested, shipped, installed and shoveled into the landfill three times in those three decades?

Now, on to composite decking. It’s called composite or synthetic decking because it has more than one component, and this class of decking has some characteristics of wood and some of plastic. Most composite wood decking is created when wood is added to plastic resin (usually polyethylene). Since the properties of composite decking vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, marketers will differentiate their products using various metrics or features, most notably:

• The source of their plastics (“post-consumer” is considered greener),
• The percent of recycled plastic (for those who want to use recycled products),
• The percent of virgin plastic (for those who don’t want to use recycled plastics because of perceived quality issues),
• The source of the non-plastic components used (recovered wood is the greenest alternative),
• The quality of the post-consumer resin used in the plastic (you don’t want chopped-up milk and vitamin labels in the deck boards),
• The color-fast properties of the decking (fading is so common among some it’s sometimes called a “mellowing process”),
• The surface feel and slip-resistance,
• The structural performance of the product (look for 16 o-c span-ability),
• The UV-protection the decking (anything to frustrate the sun’s punishing rays), and
• The deck board’s weight per board food (for transportation, easy handling during installation, and span loading).

 For a good composite example, let’s look at a popular product and see how it presents itself in these categories. Latitudes composite wood decking is made with both recycled and virgin polyethylene, and 100% of the wood additive is reclaimed product. Indeed, Latitudes is made from approximately 70% recycled materials. It’s “barefoot friendly,” slip-resistant, and reversible with a brushed finish on one side, and a wood grain look on the other, so you can choose look-and-feel. Latitudes comes in six colors—gray, cedar, redwood and walnut, and the specialty colors of Koa and Adobe in the tropical wood-look Latitudes Capricorn composite decking.

No matter what composite deck boards you're looking for, be sure they can span 16-o.c. joists, and that they comply with the all the crucial codes and standards. Look for a warranty of at least 10 years, and it should cover splintering, corrosion, as well as rot, warp, cupping, checks, or damage caused by termites or fungal decay. And finally, urge your customers to purchase premium products, for their own sake. If they always use low cost as the ultimate metric of value, they risk their reputations, as well as the prospect for annoying callbacks that are hard to solve without painful and costly tear-outs.

Your mid-summer outdoor pursuits may find you wandering pressure treated docks, boardwalks and nature path bridges. The posts supporting these structures are often sunk in water. Speculation regarding exposing aquatic wildlife to the chemicals used to treat the wood has led in some cases to concerns about the use of pressure treated wood in these applications.

In a recently published article, Dr. Kenneth Brooks, of Aquatic Environmental Sciences, presented his conclusions regarding this concern after studying the environmental response to pressure treated lumber over the last 17 years. As Dr. Brooks states in the article, “In 14 of 15 risk assessments, no significant adverse affects to the environment were documented. In fact, invertebrate communities were more diverse and abundant near these (pressure treated lumber) structures than at nearby reference locations.”

The newest, most technologically advanced pressure treatment formula—such as that used in ProWood Micro CA—is micronized copper azole. According to testing performed by Scientific Certification Systems, this new formulation has achieved a 90-99% reduction in copper release in aquatic and terrestrial environments. In addition, the copper in ProWood Micro CA bonds readily to organic matter in the soil. The copper becomes biologically inactive, thus causing no ecological impacts.

Continuous improvement through better technology is helping pressure treated lumber become an even more sustainable product, with no decline in performance.

When you think of sustainable building products what sort of products come to mind? Solar panels? Super-efficient insulation? Naturally. But when you consider the total life cycle analysis - the true measure of a product's greenness - you find wood measures up better than just about anything. An especially sustainable product choice for an exterior project is pressure treated lumber.
 
Treated lumber makes a positive environmental impact in many ways:
Less energy consumption - Using treated lumber products, instead of materials like plastic and steel, aids in the fight against global warming. When you compare the total energy costs of different kinds of building materials - including the costs to acquire the raw material, transport it, process it into useful product and then actually use it - wood far outshines its competition.
Save trees - Yes, You read that right. Because it can stay in service for decades, using pressure treated lumber extends the wood resource. In North America, the use of pressure treated wood saves millions of trees from harvest each year. Plus, the process of making steel and plastic involves extraction of non-renewable resources, while trees are renewable, sustainable and abundant.
Recyclable - Once taken out of service, pressure treaded wood can be reused as landscaping, garden edging, steps or many other popular projects.

What about the state of today's forests? Today the U.S. has 750 million acres of forestland. Forest inventory, the number of trees still standing after mortality and harvesting, increased by 49% between 1953 and 2006.

Every day more than 1.7 million trees are planted in the U.S. – 4 trees per person per year. There are 12 million more acres of forest in the U.S. today than there were 20 years ago.

Pressure treated lumber products are produced from plentiful, fast-growing trees from managed forests, not old-growth or rain forests. The process used to treat one brand, ProWood Micro CA, is the first to gain Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP) status as certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS). SCS is a third-party certification services and standards development company. EPA guidelines require that such products have reduced impacts on human health and the environment when compared to other products that serve the same purpose.

Advancements in technology are causing pressure treated lumber to be less green in hue and more green in application.