Wood Floor Resource Group - Ecological Properties

Eco Properties
	Overview

	Green Building Programs

	WFRG Eco Issues

There are a wide variety of environmentally-responsible sources for wood products. Typically, there is a certain degree of confusion concerning “green” wood products because there is no industry standard guiding the language used to describe them. Terms such as recycled, salvaged, rediscovered, and reclaimed are often used interchangeably, and the term “sustainable” is claimed by nearly every one. Recognizing this lack of clarity, Wood Floor Resource Group has made an effort to rationalize the language used to describe “green” wood products, to organize them logically into a limited number of categories, and to identify them with a simple system of symbols. The result of this work is the following table of Eco icons, which we affectionately call "E-Cons". Click on any individual icon to link to an example or a more extended explanation of that category.
	This is our own internal “Green Stamp” to identify flooring products which have one or more of the following ecological properties.
Recycled Wood:	Recycled Wood is wood that is a by-product of other manufacturing processes, such as sawdust, veneer backer boards and peeler cores, and so forth. According to general usage of terms to describe recycled-content, this type of content is described as “pre-consumer” or “post-industrial” (the latter is the term we favor). There is also “post-consumer” recycled content, which involves recycling products that have been used by consumers into new products. This practice is common in the paper industry, but much less so in the wood products industry. Because we put straight reuse of wood products such as doors and windows in the Reclaimed Wood category below, we do not have a category for Post-Consumer Recycled Wood Products.
		Recycled – Post Industrial Waste wood such as sawdust, veneer backing boards, peeler logs. For more detailed information, click here.

Salvaged Logs:	Salvaged Logs are distinguished from other categories by the fact that the basic product is a log rather than a manufactured wood product. This category covers all sources for logs that are not harvested from a natural forest or a plantation: urban forests, waterways, agriculture, etc.
		Salvaged – Post Agricultural Salvaged from old orchards being replanted. For more detailed information, click here.
		Salvaged – Forest Deadwood Salvaged standing or fallen trees killed by disease, fire, or wind. For more detailed information, click here.
		Salvaged – Industrial Forestry Salvaged from industrial forest thinnings destined to be chipped. For more detailed information, click here.
		Salvaged – Urban Forest Logs salvaged from trees growing in urban areas. For more detailed information, click here.
		Salvaged – Waterway Sunken logs raised from river and lake bottoms. For more detailed information, click here.

Reclaimed Wood	Reclaimed Wood covers all manufactured wood products that are reused or remanufactured into new products. Examples include timbers from the deconstruction of old buildings that are reused or remilled into new products, reuse of doors, windows, flooring and other wood products “as is,” and more unusual sources such as old crates and pallets.
		Reclaimed – Reused Flooring Old flooring reused from buildings being torn down. For more detailed information, click here.
		Reclaimed – Building Deconstruction Timbers reclaimed from warehouses and factories being torn down. For more detailed information, click here.

Sustainable Forestry	The Sustainable Forestry category covers all wood that is harvested from natural forests or plantations. We believe that the Forest Stewardship Council is currently the only credible forest certification program, so we use the FSC logos and designations for 100% FSC and Mixed Sources. We also include a category for plantations to designate timber that comes from plantations that are not established at the expense of natural forest and do not use genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).
		100% from Well-Managed forests All of the wood in this product comes from forests that are certified well-managed according to the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). For more detailed information, click here.
		Mixed Sources This product is certified according to the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for “Mixed Sources.” At least 75% of the wood in this product comes from well-managed forests; the remaining content comes from “neutral” and “controlled” sources—i.e. legal, non-endangered, and non-old growth sources. For more detailed information, click here.
		Plantation Plantation-grown on afforested lands and not GMO. For more detailed information, click here.

Other Environmental Attributes	The Other Environmental Attributes category covers all environmental attributes that are not found in the other categories, including embodied energy, air quality/added-formaldehyde, and rapid renewability.
		Rapidly Renewable 15 years or less regrowth rate with average years to regrow listed. For more detailed information, click here.
		Non-wood Not from trees. Examples include bamboo, palm, and cork. For more detailed information, click here.
		Low Energy Sourced and processed locally within the listed mileage. For more detailed information, click here.
		Low Formaldehyde Meets German E-1 Standards. For more detailed information, click here.
		No Urea-Formaldehyde For more detailed information, click here.