FSC, Green Building, and ABS Wood

Lacey Act!

The hundred year old environmental law that still protects today.

All our wood complies to the US Lacey Act. The act itself was passed in 1900 under president McKinley. Yet, like many laws it is frequently updated. The 2008 iteration brought imported hardwoods under its aegis. The Act’s goal is to insure no illegal forest products are brought into the country. In the case of Brazilian hardwoods, illegally harvested, stolen, and so forth.

What you need to know is companies found in violation of the act face huge fines. The fines can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Rest assured all our products conform to the Lacey act in full. They are all sustainable harvested, milled, and transported per the US Lacey act.

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.


fieldstoforests

Fields to Forests

Fields To Forests is a program that reclaims and reforests land that was cleared for agriculture and returns the land back to natural forest and well managed plantations.

Fields to Forests insures that 2 trees are planted every 500 board feet purchased.

The trees are selected, planted, and cared for in a professional manned adhering to strict environmental standards and will be included in the Fields To Forests Registry at the time they are field planted. These are premium mixed species trees that have been planted as permanent stands in well managed tropical forest plantations.


LEED

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 an Ipe 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.