FSC Certified Wood is a New Green Standard by CasaConceptDesign

Jumping on the GREEN high-speed train is relatively easy, but landing in the train that is going in the right direction and sitting in the right wagon.. is tricky at best. Learning the lingo of real Green is perhaps a good way to discern which train and what wagon to take. Considering that wood, in all its forms, comprises the largest amount of natural resources used in the traditional building of homes, it is important to start by knowing that when it comes to building or remodeling GREEN, one must use FSC certified wood.

FSC is not an insider's terminology of something complicated, it simply stands for Forest Stewardship Council, which is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world's forests. Why world? Because so many of our wood products, from exotic wood veneers to our 2x4 lumber, come from important ecological regions of the world, such as the Amazon Basin. If wood is FSC certified, and it is stamped as such ( not piece by piece of a truckload of 2x4's being delivered at your site, but a few random pieces that are stamped will denote that that batch is certified), you are greening your construction project.

What can you do to insure that FSC certified woods are being used in your Green new construction or home remodel? Start by reading more about FSC (follow my links) and ascertaining that this is an important value for you. Ask your architect to include it in her/his specifications. When meeting with your contractor/builder make sure she/he is on board with that requirement before ordering any wood, and ask to be given a verification of this throughout the duration of construction, in the form of copy of invoices that denote wood orders as FSC certified.

What is the additional cost of getting on this green train? "There is no extra cost to the consumer", according to Todd Vogelsinger, Director of Marketing, Plywood Division of Columbia Forest Products, North Carolina. When I visited with him at the 2007 Greenbuild Conference and Expo in Chicago, it was clear that the contractor's price of plywood for cabinetry- I looked at maple and oak in particular, given that I had recently purchased truck full loads of these for the Casa Concept Home in Houston- was equal to non FSC certified plywood of the same species. “Our FSC certified plywood which uses our Purebond proprietary formaldehyde-free process, puts us at the top of the green materials marketplace". We will be working with Todd to develop modern, affordable cabinetry that uses formaldehyde-free FSC plywood, a healthy and responsible green alternative to what 97% of all homes use for finishes and cabinetry.

When we start noticing the amount of wood that goes into the construction and finishing of a house, it is vital that we obtain the assurance that the wood is coming from renewable forests, with long term and short term reforestation plans, best ecological practices, and living wages for workers in the forestry and logging industries. In short, by consuming FSC woods, we are approaching sustainability of communities, forests and the ecosystem. If you're already on the Green high-speed train and your project is or will be registered as a LEED for Homes project, you will aready be using FSC certified material. If you're thinking about getting on this train, consider using FSC certified woods to lower your impact on the environment.