For the past few years, there has been a surge of interest in more eco-friendly lifestyles. The most popular information of this green awareness has been on alternative energy, and with good reason. Oil prices are the highest ever. This, in turn, affects the price of travel, which makes everything that needs to be transported from one place to another more expensive.

When dealing with home and business remodeling, it may seem that there are few avenues to be eco-conscious, save for using recycled material and alternative energies for electricity and heating water. This is quite untrue. There are many innovations in the field of construction that help conserve and protect our environment, or at least affects the environment less than other actions. We will research these methods, both the obvious and not so obvious.

Use of Hardwoods: Eco-Friendly

I'm sure the last thing you think of being environmentally conscious is using the wood of trees that are cut down for building materials. We're supposed to be saving the trees, right? Yes, but sometimes the methods of producing building materials is just as important as the materials themselves.

Many wood suppliers harvest their lumber right here in the United States, using a practice of selective cutting. This means that trees are specifically selected throughout a forest for harvesting, instead of sectional harvesting where multiple trees are taken from the same space. By doing so, forests are able to rejuvenate themselves at a much more natural scale by removing trees that are stunting the growth of younger, smaller trees. The wood supplier of ZVI Woodworks receives much of its wood from Appalachian Forestry, a section of forestry extending from New York to Tennessee with a growth to harvest ratio of 2.29 to 1 (as supplied by the U.S. Forest Service). In matters of sustainable wood supply, this company promotes FSC certified hardwoods.

The most well known sustainable wood is bamboo. However, there are many different hardwoods right here on the East Coast, each with a different hue and grain, that also fall into the category of sustainable hardwoods. The Appalachian Mountains are an excellent source of sustainable forestry and, unlike bamboo, transportation of these materials is quick and ecologically helpful. Maple, poplar, oak, cherry, and American walnut are some of the choices made available in order to expand the options you have for your home or business.

The waste of these hardwoods is also beneficial. The waste from the trees, as well as much of the material replaced, can be recycled into particle board, which is used for construction purposes. This waste can be directly from brush and twig waste, or wood shavings, or even ground-up wood. Some larger tree waste can be made into the veneer that covers panel-boards, depending on the size and length of the branches.