Sustainable Forestry – How The Wolf Tree Plays a Role

There are a lot of bad actors in the lumber industry. However, to lump in every lumber company as a villain of the Earth is both unsubstantiated and very misinformed. Case in point, we recently received a letter from someone who insisted that we were not an eco-friendly lumber company. This person was concerned about …

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U.S. Postal Service – Uses Ipe Wood for Green Roof Project

Who says the US Government can’t do anything right? Recently, the United States Postal Service unveiled its new Green Roof for one of its major mail processing facilities. As a New York City native, I can tell you that the building in question is H-U-G-E. This building is so big, that when they decided to …

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Botanical Garden uses Ipe Decking

Recently, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville recently unveiled the highly anticipated new addition to their botanical garden area called the Gardens. Inspired by Asian pagodas, “The Lantern” is a truly beautiful structure. It was designed to offer a tranquil place to view the water as well as a peaceful place to get away from the …

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Green Building with Ipe Decking & FSC Wood

There are so many great resources out there to help you build a green deck, or install eco-friendly flooring. Thanks to increased demand and the efforts of governments throughout the world, eco-friendly products are not going to become a fad, but hopefully an industry standard. Obviously, this is important because if the construction industry and the lumber industry fail to recognize that there are only so many resources in the world, they are basically leading to their own demise. After all, there is a point where the damage caused by the old ways of forestry lead to irreparable damage that causes great harm to both our environment and our civilized society. If you think this is just some typical tree-hugger propaganda, think again…

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LEED Certification – The Basics of This Green Building Initiative

The LEED Certification (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) was established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to provide the construction and building industries with a verifiable system to define exactly what a green building is. Using a point system, an eco-friendly building can achieve LEED certification.

The more points a green building accumulates, the more prestigious the LEED Certification. If you think all it takes to get LEED Certified is screwing in a couple of compact fluorescent light bulbs, think again.  The USGBC has put in place a set of strict policies and procedures that must be followed. The good news is that there are various ways that a building project can earn LEED certified.

Here are the various LEED Certification levels:

  • LEED Certified – 40-49 points
  • LEED Silver – 50-59 points
  • LEED Gold – 60-79 points
  • LEED Platinum – 80 points & over

The Materials Resource Credit 7 (MRc7) is a great LEED credit to plan for.

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FSC Wood Is Perfect for Building a Green Deck

AdvantageLumber.com is proud to offer customers worldwide a full selection of FSC wood that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other companies who would rather say that they are eco-friendly without actually backing it up. Not every direct importer of exotic hardwoods has this highly coveted designation. …

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Ipe Decking Is Eco-Friendly & Beautiful

Few things in life are as refreshing as stepping out onto your ipe wood deck to enjoy the company of friends, loved ones, or just to have a moment of solitude. Homeowners who are looking to upgrade or replace their existing patio and outdoor entertainment area are turning to ipe in droves for many reasons. …

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