Woodworking Network: With several species and grades available, hardwoods – whether American or exotic – are cost-effective and high-quality materials suitable for a range of applications and industries, from furniture and cabinetry manufacturing to interior design and construction. An added benefit is that hardwoods are often considered an environmentally friendly and renewable resource – one that, thanks to sustainable forest management, can be harvested with minimal environmental impact and regenerated to ensure there’s always an abundant and continued supply.
5 comments:
I wonder why this article is about hardwood specifically. I assume all these same principles apply to softwood as well, or is the environmental impact of those two products different enough that they need to be considered differently? I think that the hardest part of buying sustainable wood is getting the information. Even if you know all the criteria to be looking for, the supplier won’t necessarily have that information. I have a sustainability guide that I follow for seafood, and I have an app that allows me to look up exactly which species of fish caught/ farmed is which locations by what method is sustainable, but I can’t usually find those details about the product itself. I think lumber could pose a similar issue, unless suppliers start making that information available. Certifications definitely help simplify this since it is information that is more likely to be advertised and means there are fewer questions the consumer needs to ask.
For many of the reasons outlined in this article, I was a little disappointed when I learned that CMU does not reuse their materials after a show closes. I come from a place where environmental friendliness is a priority. There are sorted recycling bins on every corner, and it's actually illegal to not recycle within city limits. The shock of coming to Pittsburgh, where there are barely any recycling bins on campus or on the street, and people don't emphasize biking or taking the bus, has deeply saddened me. I didn't realize just how much I took easy recycling for granted. Seeing the way CMU treats paper products and wood is disconcerting. Even if we are wanting to teach people how to build a show within a budget, we should be taking apart scenery and reusing any parts we can. The impact we are making by launching 4 mainstage shows without reusing materials is undeniable. Even if we just took apart scenery and donated the lumber to local high schools we could make a difference. Treating lumber like it is expendable says a lot about how we feel about the tree that was cut down to give us that lumber. I just wish that there was a way we could keep these materials from going in the dumpster every few months.
I enjoyed reading this article. I truly believe that we vote with our money and I think that is the idea of the article. By buying responsibly sourced wood, you can push other companies to do the same. That forces suppliers to start selling the more ethical product, could eventually, make it a standard. However, often times these products more expensive and in theater, we are often looking for the cheapest option possible so that we can make the most scenery. I hope that both the theater industry and the wood manufacturers can encourage the idea of sustainability. I’m curious to why this article only talked about hardwoods. As someone who has limited knowledge on the subject I wonder if softwoods are more or less sustainable. Also, all the reasons mentioned in the article are problems that come from how the wood is sourced and I’m curious to know if there are other factors about how the trees grow that impact the sustainability.
There’s definitely a lot to learn here, and this article only scratches the surface. In theory, following these guidelines, one could be much better equipped to make sustainable and ethical decisions regarding lumber sources. Even so, there are a lot of points that aren’t unpacked enough to provide real guidance. Past all of that, my experience has been that, unfortunately, sustainable and ethical materials often aren’t affordable for smaller theatres. Although the purchasers can and generally do consider sustainability, the priority lies more on executing the design. I think a lot of it depends on where the theatre’s priorities lie--is sustainability a core part of their mission, or is it just something that’s in the back of their minds? If sustainability becomes an integral, high priority of producing theatre, I think we’d definitely see a shift in the way that designs develop. It wouldn’t necessarily be detrimental, however, as art tends to flourish within constraints.
This is an issue that I am rather concerned about and think it is something that our industry especially should be really conscious of. We may not deal with hardwoods as much as other industries but all of this still applies to the harvesting of soft woods which we go through at a crazy rate. The amount of lumber that we throw away every week continues to astound me. I really do not see a practical way to make a huge difference immediately on this matter, but it is something I would like to investigate further in my career. I think this idea of asking these questions of your vendor continuously is a good place to start. The more people who show interest in this at our level, the more vendors will have to become concerned about it as well. It is just simple marketing. If your customers want something one way, you better do it or they will find it somewhere else. I do not know if it is a good idea to make your suppliers angry with constant questioning like this, but it could not be a bad idea to keep yourself updated with where they are getting your lumber from.
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