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Earth Friendly/Green Advantages
— Carbon Footprint
Continued interest in buildings that are better for the environment,
healthier for occupants and more cost-efficient to operate is helping
to drive the popularity of green building. Log home buildings
excel as it relates to carbon footprint. The logs in a True North
log home are the first step towards building a negative carbon
footprint home.
 According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB),
green built homes will account for up to 10% of new construction
by the year 2010 -- and two thirds of all homebuilders expect to
be involved in green building to some degree by the end of this
year.
As wood is an inherently "green" material, the trend toward green
building represents an opportunity. In addition to being the only
major building material that's renewable and sustainable over the
long term, studies in the U.S. have shown that wood is superior
to steel and cement in almost every environmental impact category.
In terms of wood use, a key element of most programs is making
sure that products come from sustainable managed forests. The NAHB
guidelines are inclusive in that they specify the use of wood certified
through various credible organizations and/or systems, including
the Canadian Standards Association, Sustainable Forestry Initiative,
Forest Stewardship Council, and American Tree Farm System. They
also reward renewablility, and emphasize resource-efficient designs
that optimize the use of natural resources. True North Log Homes
takes great pride in doing business with qualified suppliers.
The carbon cycle of wood-based products
True North Log Homes highly recommends visiting the Ceis-Bois
website (http://www.cei-bois.org/)
for information on the green advantages of log/wood buildings and
also strongly recommends reading the publication entitled "Tackle
Climate Change: Use Wood" which
is available for FREE on their site." In particular read the sections
titled "The carbon cycle of wood-based products" (page 48) and
"Building With Wood" (page 60).
Wood and Life Cycle Assessment studies show that wood has a
softer environmental footprint than steel or concrete in terms
of embodied energy, air and water pollution, and greenhouse gas
emissions. It also has better insulating value, which reduces
the need for heating and cooling, which represents about 45%
of most utility bills. The outstanding cellular structure of
wood provides 15 times better thermal insulation than concrete,
400 times better than steel and 1770 times better than aluminium.
A 2.5 cm timber board has better thermal resistance than an a
11.4 cm brick wall.
( Referenced Cei-bois, Executive Summary 2004)
High-performance homes built with log and timbers are now routine.
Logs are the ultimate renewable and sustainable green building
system-although LEED and NAHB's Green Building Guidelines don't
recognize it just yet. The log home industry is lobbying to change
this perception. Often, many environmentalist; understanding
of forestry is based on emotions rather than ecology, explains
Ed Burke, professor of wood and forest science at the University
of Montana School of Forestry. "They think that any cutting of
trees is bad," says Ed Burke. In truth, harvesting by man is
the only controlled alternative available to maintain a healthy
forest compared to the two natural forces that are largely uncontrollable-forest
fires and insect predation.
(Referenced as stated in "Building Systems 2007 Green Building
Guide")
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international certification
and labelling system that guarantees that the forest products you
purchase come from responsibly managed forests and verified recycled
sources.
Under FSC certification, forests are certified against a set of
strict environmental and social standards, and fibre from certified
forests is tracked all the way to the consumer through the chain
of custody certification system. The end result is products in
the marketplace carrying the FSC "check-tree" logo.
FSC certification is a voluntary and market-based mechanism for
ensuring that our forests are healthy. Consumer demand for FSC-certified
products encourages forest managers and owners to become FSC-certified.
Independent third-party auditors conduct all FSC certification
audits.
See www.sudburyforest.com for
more info.
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