Eco Friendly Organic Furniture: Why North American Hardwood Is The Best Raw Material
What's the most organic, eco-friendly raw material for furniture? I guess there are different opinions on this but you have to admit that wood is naturally green. It's sustainable, biodegradable and renewable.
The National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA) puts out a brochure periodically that reports statistics for the American hardwood industry. Are we harvesting our hardwoods sustainably in the USA?
According to NHLA the hardwood inventory in the USA has grown by 98% during the past 5 decades. I'd say that's pretty sustainable.
Here's another cool fact NHLA cites: Wood represents 47 percent of all raw materials used in the United States but the energy used to produce wood products (including furniture) accounts for just 4 percent of the energy used to make all manufactured materials. Wow! It makes sense though when you consider all the hard-core industrial processing that's required to make a piece of metal or plastic furniture, right?
At Vermont Woods Studios Furniture we specialize in organic, eco-friendly solid hardwood furniture that's made from local and regionally harvested wood. To help keep our forests healthy and sustainable, we're excited to be supporting the Vermont Council on Rural Development and their ambitious Vermont Working Landscape Partnership Program as part of our forest conservation mission.
I just have to throw in one last random but amazing reason why wood is the greenest raw material for furniture-making: the EPA estimates that each year our American forests remove the greenhouse gases emitted by 139,000,000 cars! You gotta love wood.
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“energy used to produce wood products accounts for just 4% of the energy used to make all manufactured materials. ”
That is a very impressive number! Not only is wood furniture green-er to make, it lasts much longer than most plastic furniture pieces as well. That means wood furniture is less likely to end up in a landfill. How often do you hear are heirloom metal chairs? But a wooden table or dresser can get passed through the generations.