Environmental Scorecard

ENERGY EFFICIENT

It takes:

9 times more energy to produce a steel stud as it does to produce a comparable wood stud.

5 times more energy to produce aluminum siding rather than wood siding.

3 times more energy to extract and produce a concrete block than to produce its equivalent weight of wood.

21 times more energy to produce a four inch concrete slab floor than producing a wood deck.

Wood's resistance of heat transfer (R-value) is:

8 times greater than concrete

413 times greater than steel

2,000 times greater than aluminum

ENVIRONMENTALLY COMPATIBLE

A steel frame building uses 4,000 times more coal, oil, and natural gas to process than wood.

Aluminum production results in eight times the air emissions and 300 times the water emissions of lumber production.

The production of concrete emits two to three times more carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons than the production of lumber.

Totally biodegradable wood waste accounts for only seven percent of the volume of US landfills. Totally NON-biodegradable plastics account for 25 to 30 percent of landfill space.

RENEWABLE AND RECYCLABLE

Wood is the only readily renewable natural resource and it is increasing in reserves every year.

The total volume of wood growing in the US is 25 percent greater today than it was in 1952.

Even steel containing 60 percent recycled material consists of 40 percent virgin material that mined from the earth and cannot be replaced.

The synthetic materials industries (plastic, vinyl, etc.) rely on oil and natural gas for 98 percent of their raw materials.

---

[About the SCFA] [Contact Us]
[HOME]

---