Sustainability

Wood is the most sustainable building material available.  As a raw building material, wood’s merits are extensive and wood creates far less carbon dioxide emissions than competing building products, and the sustainability movement and green building initiatives have been adopted into several model building codes and national standards.  Treated wood preserves wood against termite attack and fungal decay, lengthening its serviceable life and extending the benefits of using wood even further. 

• Wood is the only naturally renewable building material and it is documented that for decades forest growth in North America has exceeded forest harvest. 
• Advancements in wood product manufacturing technology continue to improve wood's sustainability after it is harvested. 
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) research shows that by a number of "cradle-to-grave" sustainability measures, treated wood is significantly more environmentally friendly than alternative construction materials.

To ensure forest sustainability, wood products from certified forests should be specified and there are several certification systems in place in North America:

• The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international system covering forest management practices and the tracking and labeling of certified products and paper products with recycled content.
• The Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® Program (SFI) is a sustainable forest management standard targeting large industrial operations in Canada and the United States. 
• The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is a national standard for sustainable forest management and tracking and labeling certified material covering operations in Canada.

These certification programs each promote principles, objectives and measurement criteria that form the basis of global sustainable forest management.  

Here are latest field studies and in service findings from Viance. Click on the links below to download test reports, photos and more.

 - Download photo 1 of sample decayed post (800 kb)

 - Download photo 2 of sample decayed post (288 kb)

 - Download photo 3 of sample decayed post (424 kb)

 - Download photos of decayed posts (10 photos 320 kb)

 - Timber Products Inspection, Inspection & Ratings, Alpharetta, GA site, Jan. 21, 2009 
    (Jan 21 2009 TPI GA Post Findings Report.pdf - 5.3 mb)

  - Timber Products Inspection, Inspection & Ratings, Baton Rouge, LA site, Nov. 14, 2008 
    (Nov 14 2008 TPI LA Post Findings Report pdf - 5.5 mb)

Please note that the findings described in the Timber Product Inspection reports are on private, residential property; at the request and for the protection of the owner, we did not include the street address of the site.

May 2008

IRG Presentation: The test methodology and assessment paper, “Field Stake Tests with Copper-based Preservatives,” which will be presented at the 39th Annual Conference of the International Research Group on Wood Preservation (IRG) in Istanbul, Turkey, May 25 – 29, 2008.
 

March 2008

Independent Analysis: An independent analysis of our testing, “Evaluation of the Comparative Performance of Alkaline Copper Quat and Micronized Copper Quat formulations in field stake tests” by Darrel Nicholas, PhD.