Buying sustainable wood and responsibly sourced wood products
Why are we in this position? Why do we need to take extra care when buying wood these days? Why is wood a diminishing resource?
Farming wood both locally, nationally and internationally has led to a dwindling supply of this beautiful natural resource. Lets face facts, we are a growing population, with billions of people living on a small planet which provides us with a limited range of natural resources. Having used wood for centuries on a massive scale, and having grown our reach when sourcing products, together with urbanisation and transport networks, has led to critical deforestation on a global scale.
We love wood and all that can be made with it, however we choose to only source our wooden supplies from manufacturers around the globe who buy from responsible farms. The Scandinavians have long been aware of these issues and will supply raw wood and prepared wood to companies and individuals alike. Companies like Benfield ATT Group offer sustainable timber frames for building the exterior of your home, however finding interior products which are eco friendly can be cumbersome and time consuming, hence we have stepped in.
Valuing wood as a natural resource
Organisations today are looking at placing a value on our forests, rain forests and wood as a natural resource, and it runs into the £ trillions. Make no mistake, the companies who are involved with logging in South America and other countries are making fortunes, and keeping forests safe and renewing timber supplied is not only in their interest but in our interest. Of course we all know we need trees and woodlands for cleaning the air we breathe but it also goes deeper than that with food chains around the world relying on forests for natural habitat and species being threatened by this diminishment. You'll see links across the site to charities and wood organisations, please visit these and give generously, and on a day to day level please buy sustainable wooden products.
With an industry worth so many billions and trillions of pounds, how do we manage this wood in a sustainable way when everyone throughout the planet is farming for different purposes and with different machinery? Not only individual companies but imagine this the UK government was using illegally sourced hard woods for buildings in parliament! Read more from Greenpeace about UK government wood here. Well the organisations who help 'police' or manage wood farming are listed on this site and include the FSC, Greenpeace, rain Forest Concern to name a few, however when buying products it's harder to locate these, try starting with companies like Homes Interiors green product guides as they will look for things for you in much the same way as we do.