Re: [GBlist] Wood: "recycled" and/or "rapidly renewable"?

[John Salmen <terrain@shaw.ca>]

the terms that seem to by universally used by the industry for fingerjointed
material is 'salvage' and 'upgrade. It is however virgin material that is
harvested for that purpose with the INTENT that the material can be graded
to a marketable product (by cutting out defects, etc.) so I would not
consider it 'recycled' or even 'post industrial' as most of the larger mills
cut with the intent of getting the most benefit out of the material within
the same industrial process.

It does represent a very efficient use of material and I am a big fan of
finger joint material for that reason so it should garner some benefit under
LEED but I don't think technically qualifies.

confusing isn't it.

Fast growing species is another issue. Almost all the oriented strand board
manufacturers depend on utilizing a fast growing tree. Slocan I know
exclusively uses northern Aspen. 'Rapidly renewable' is a misnomer though
that LEED should probably reconsider - fast growing species typically play a
role in soil stabilization in a forest (nitrogen fixers, etc.) but quickly
lose their dominance and in the case of aspen become replaced by pine,
spruce, etc. that continue some mysterious process of soil transformation.
Maintaining a forest as a mono-culture, which in the case of aspen involves
densifying the stands to speed growth (and eliminate successive species)
seems to have consistently led to an inability of the soil (or whatever) to
maintain successive generations of growth (not renewable in other words).
Ironically 'rapidly renewable' also means cutting a tree at an immature
point - at a point where we loose the benefit of exponential growth. It
takes a lot of energy for a tree to get to 4-5" dia. but then significantly
less energy for the tree to add significantly more fiber every subsequent
year of growth. Also in its infancy a trees energy is directed to its own
benefit, as it matures that benefit is directed more subtly to the soil, the
air, etc. so harvesting a tree at a 50-60 yr cycle would provide a little
more benefit all round.

Engineered wood at this point is focused on using virgin material to
simplify manufacturing and to maintain production levels.  It would be great
if the industry could be forced to reorient itself to salvage or recycled
content - similar to the newsprint industry legislation.

sorry for the rant

John Salmen
TERRAIN E.D.S.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandra Leibowitz" <sleibowitz@earthlink.net>
To: "Green Building Listserve" <greenbuilding@crest.org>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 5:41 AM
Subject: [GBlist] Wood: "recycled" and/or "rapidly renewable"?


> For a wood-framed building seeking LEED certification, the following
> issues have come up:
>
> 1) Would finger-jointed lumber count as "recycled material"?  Has any
> one had any experience with this from particular manufacturers?  Is it
> simply an efficient use of the material or might one say that the short
> lengths are "post-industrial scrap"?
>
> 2) What fast-growing species would count as "rapidly renewable"?  The
> LEED Reference Guide doesn't address this at all except to include
> "poplar OSB" in a short list of building products from rapidly renewable
> materials and to generally describe a maximum 10-year
> harvesting/regeneration rate (don't have the exact wording here).
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
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>


______________________________________________________________________
This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by REPP/CREST, creator of
Solstice http://www.crest.org, and BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of
Environmental Building News and GreenSpec http://www.BuildingGreen.com
______________________________________________________________________