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The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), the leading international trade association for the American hardwood industry, has underlined its determination to ensure that sustainably managed hardwoods receive full environmental recognition, as the Middle East implements stronger green building regulations. The announcement complements AHEC’s mission to promote the environmental credentials of American hardwoods in the face of emerging public and private sector procurement policies. In line with this, AHEC has announced their participation at the ‘Green Building Middle East Exhibition and Global Summit 2011’, the region’s only dedicated exhibition and global summit for the sustainable design and construction for the built environment, which will be held from March 28 to March 30, 2011 at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi.
During the event, Rupert Oliver, Sustainability Consultant to AHEC, will talk on the sustainable credentials of the American hardwoods. As an internationally recognized independent authority with 20 years experience on environmental issues related to the timber trade and forest management, he has travelled widely, studying forestry practices and market development in North America, Europe, the Far East, and Africa, and is regularly consulted by international and national agencies in the international forest products sector. A strong believer in the contribution that forestry and timber can make to sustainable development, Rupert will debate the merits of American hardwoods as being the most environmentally friendly building material on the planet. He will also shed light on the initial findings of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study and discuss the significance of adopting green building standards and practices on a global platform.
Of all the numerous environmental benefits of American hardwoods, just one should make many users and specifiers of building materials sit up and take notice. This is the fact - supported by national forest assessments undertaken by the U.S. federal government every ten years - that between 1953 and 2007, the volume of hardwood standing in U.S. forests more than doubled from 5 billion m3 to 11.4 billion m3. This huge expansion of the resource, which actually coincides with a period of significant increase in U.S. and international wood demand, is testament to a long-term commitment to good forest governance and sustainable hardwood production in the United States.
American hardwoods are very energy efficient. The process of converting wood into usable building products requires considerably less energy than most other materials. Furthermore, much of the energy needed to produce American hardwood products is bio-energy. A 2007 study of 20 hardwood sawmills in the North Eastern United States revealed that 75 per cent of the energy required to manufacture kiln dried lumber derived from biomass (such as tree bark, saw dust and wood off-cuts). As a result, even less carbon dioxide is emitted when producing American hardwood lumber than when producing many recycled materials.
Roderick Wiles, AHEC Director for the Africa, Middle East, India and Oceania, says: “A preliminary assessment by AHEC of the carbon footprint of American hardwoods from forest to international distributor suggests that carbon sequestration during forest growth of the tree will more than offset the total carbon emissions resulting from harvesting, processing and transport. The AHEC assessment also suggests that transport is a relatively minor factor in the overall carbon footprint. This is particularly true of ocean transport. Transporting American hardwoods by ship across the Atlantic, a journey of over 6,000 km, requires little more energy than an overland journey of 500 km. In fact, even a complete circumnavigation of the world by sea (40,000 km) is likely to be readily offset by the carbon sequestered in the wood product.”
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