FSC, Green Building, and ABS Wood

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

ABS Wood's Ipe and Premium Brazilian Decking products offer builders the choice of FSC or conventional decking. ABS Wood offers FSC, a premium product that can help you work toward meeting such programs as LEED and the ANSI National Green Building Standard.

AFFORDABILITY

Today's construction environment and home-buyers have an ever increasing interest in green building. ABS Wood's Ipe Premium Brazilian Decking is becoming the decking of choice for many commercial and residential construction projects. As builders endeavor to become more competitive and market the right product, we're backing them with premium products that can control costs, shorten build times, and reduce hassles. We also have the green component as we can offer FSC Brazilian decking.

DURABILITY

ABS Wood only supplies Premium Brazilian Decking – strong, durable, reliable and consistent. Ipe is the decking you can stand behind with total confidence. ABSWood provides Premium Brazilian Decking with all the right properties at the right price.

SUSTAINABILITY

Today's home-buyers and progressive home builders are driving the "green movement" with concerns about such things as energy, longevity, maintenance, and environmental impact. As builders push to be more competitive and add environmental responsibility as part of their offering to homeowners, ABS Wood is there. ABS Wood offers builders the choice of Premium Brazilian Decking in conventional, or FSC harvested from responsibly managed forests. If you are working toward meeting programs such as LEED or the ANSI National Green Building Standard, ABS Wood supports you with its third-party certified credentials.

http://www.fsc.org/

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Landowners and companies that sell timber or forest products seek certification as a way to verify to consumers that they have practiced forestry consistent with FSC standards. Independent, certification organizations are accredited by FSC to carry out assessments of forest management to determine if standards have been met. These certifiers also verify that companies claiming to sell FSC certified products have tracked their supply back to FSC certified sources. This chain of custody certification assures that consumers can trust the FSC label.

Trusted environmental organizations including Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund all support and encourage FSC certification. Consumers wishing to support healthy forests and communities should look and ask for the FSC label when purchasing wood.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) program of the U.S. Green Building Council is a commercial building design guideline and third-party certification tool that aims to “improve occupant well-being, environmental performance and economic returns of buildings using established and innovative practices, standards and technologies” (LEED™ Rating System version 2.1). Incentives for companies to choose to use the LEED™ system include establishing leadership in the “environmentally friendly” community, as well as qualifying for a growing number of local and state government incentives.
Under the LEED™ system, points can be awarded in five categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, materials & resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation & design process. Credit 7 under the materials & resources category addresses the issue of certified wood, with the intent of encouraging environmentally responsible forest management. The requirements for the credit are:

“Use a minimum of 50% of wood-based materials and products, which are certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Principles and Criteria, for wood building components. These components include, but are not limited to, structural framing and general dimensional framing, flooring, sub-flooring, wood doors and finishes. Only include materials permanently installed in the project.”

Green Harvest

a Talk with a Mill Owner

Many people ask about Ipe and how it is harvested. Because of that interest, we took the time to talk to one of our mill owner to ask the questions our customers are asking. Here is that interview.

ABS Wood Site Exclusive!

Rules of Forest Preservation

A quick overview of the various organizations concerned with the protection of our rainforests.

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