We celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd every year, but the importance of sustainability is something to be passionate about year-round. In an era filled with single-use plastics and carbon emissions, looking to our renewable resources, like lumber, could be a key to being more environmentally conscious.
Lumber is local
Carbon emissions are a significant and ever-growing problem and many people and businesses are looking for ways to reduce their own carbon footprint. That’s what makes lumber such a valuable resource. Trees are grown across North America, enabling lumber to be sourced locally, reducing the need to rely on transporting the materials and thus, reducing carbon emissions. Not having to transport lumber also reduces the costs associated with transport and is a lighter material to transport when it is necessary, ultimately making it a more affordable material to source.
Lumber is renewable
Trees can and are planted regularly and North America offers a wide variety of climates that are perfect for growing and maintaining forests of trees of various types. It is one of the rare commodities that we, as a society, can manage and maintain. As long as we have soil and oxygen and the right climate, lumber will continue to provide us with a material that can be used in a litany of ways, without ever losing its accessibility and availability for greater, long-term and future use.
Lumber is sustainable
Standards for harvesting wood in North America exist to ensure that forests are maintained and not irreparably damaged by our reliance on the amazing resource that is lumber. The sustainability of the lumber industry helps to keep it a solid, environmentally consciously option that will maintain lumber as one of our most valuable, natural resources for generations to come.