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There's no simple answer to your question. Much of what makes wood "eco-friendly" is how it's sourced. You can have one example of wood be responsibly harvested and another of the same species not so responsibly harvested. For woods sourced overseas from Asia and South America, I'd be much more suspicious of irresponsible harvesting than US or Canadian products. But that's a generalization and there are exceptions in every case. For example,Teak from Asia is now usually sourced from dedicated Teak plantations. That's not as great an ecosystem as an old growth forest but it beats slash and burn harvesting that ends in ruination of the land. Domestic hardwoods like Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Ash, Hickory, can be responsibly harvested. There are all sorts of varying forests from which wood is harvested. Some wood is harvested from large corporate land holdings and some is from small family properties. Some comes from land managed/owned by the government. You also have to consider the total carbon footprint of all involved in getting said wood to market. Something you have to fly here from somewhere else factors into the "eco-friendly" equation.
In that case, bamboo is about as eco-friendly as it gets. It is grass, so it is totally renewable. What's more, the manufacturing process involves no VOC's. The only downsides are cost and the fact that is is hard as nails and very difficult to sand.I'll try and remember to bring the sample, but no guarantees. I have a lot on my mind as far as the show goes.- Jim
Quote from: jsalk on 29 Apr 2009, 12:26 amIn that case, bamboo is about as eco-friendly as it gets. It is grass, so it is totally renewable. What's more, the manufacturing process involves no VOC's. The only downsides are cost and the fact that is is hard as nails and very difficult to sand.I'll try and remember to bring the sample, but no guarantees. I have a lot on my mind as far as the show goes.- JimIf I can play devil's advocate a bit....this is not meant to be taken personal by Jim or anyone, just my point of view.This whole industry is pretty sketchy when it comes to "green" products. Because it was brought up, Bamboo can be just as brown as it is green. Unless I am mistaken and things have changed, Bamboo has no credible certification such as FSC. I could very well be wrong, there are many people fighting for a certification program for bamboo and it may have just happened. It is true that it naturally regenerates, but many forests are being cleared to grow it and it is becoming quite a monoculture. Farmers, in an effort to grow bamboo as fast as possible, often use very high amounts of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides which contaminate water supplies. Almost all bamboo products have formaldehyde binders. I would argue that domestically grown, FSC certified Birds-Eye Hard Maple is more "Green" than bamboo. It really becomes up to use as manufacturers/consumers to not only specify but research products which are the most sustainable. We must learn to not think that because a product comes in a green box it is better than the rest.
Devil's advocates are always welcome as far as I'm concerned. "Green" is a very complex subject. If a green product costs substantially more than a brown product, you also have to consider why. Is it because there's a more complex manufacturing process? If so, that generally means more energy being expended during fabrication, and that has to be factored in. I suspect we're better off just considering the audio-related qualities and deciding whether that's worth the cost, particularly when the amount of commerce involved is so small. (Until Jim buys out GM's manufacturing plants, at least).
