Everything You Need To Know About Sustainable Wood

With growing concern about the future of forestry and pressure on industries to become more sustainable, we need to be more careful with how we source wood used in industry. As an industrial wood workshop, we are sure you are joining in the concern of how quickly we are hitting the world's natural resources and considering how to make simple changes to protect the environment. 

Here at Calderbrook, we want to stress that it's no longer easy or right to buy wood without considering where it came from. This is undoubtedly making wood purchasing more complex but is vital for our planet. Buying timber sourced from sustainably managed forests is the answer, so let's look into more detail about what sustainable wood is and why you should only consider using this in your products.

What is sustainable wood?

Sustainability is renewable, and this means forest stewards manage the landscape to protect the ecosystems, wildlife, watersheds, and critically the trees by working for the long rather than short term.

 Effective management will mean the forests will be there for generations to come, as a haven for wildlife and to protect the environment. Trees absorb carbon emissions, so we must manage how we deplete woodland and forestry.

Sustainable wood

Hardwood timber such as beech and oak from slow-growing trees are less sustainable than pines considered fast-growing, thus, more sustainable. Oak forests require greater forestry management to be sustainable, it can be done, but they must be grown and harvested right.

The future is seeing the EU introduce legal measures to protect woodland and forestry and a commitment to plant more trees than there are felled. This means that EU sourced wood is usually safe to meet the desire to buy sustainably sourced wood. However, the news is not so certain outside of the EU. Wood from South America, Asia and Africa still has a long way to go with guaranteeing sustainable forestry. They now have several international organisations working to assess forests in the regions, including Canada and the United States, but there is still a long way to go.

Identifying Sustainable Wood

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the governing body that guarantees wood you purchase is sustainably sourced. The FSC logo accompanying wood you buy will help you meet a commitment to ensure wood you buy is replaced and sourced without harming the environment or eco-systems.

While not FSC certified, Bamboo can be sustainable if purchased from areas that renew and allow its speedy natural growth to occur. Bamboo is ready to harvest in as little as 3-5 years compared with 10-20 years for most softwoods, so why not consider working with Bamboo and committing to sustainability – this is certainly something you might want to shout about to your customers!