Wood is a renewable resource. In the United States, 33 percent more trees are grown than are
harvested. Every year two billion trees are planted, about six and a half million every day. The value of wood as a renewable resource is seen in the fact that the same forests in Maine that produced wood for the Continental Navy are still providing wood today.
Wood is energy efficient. It takes nine times more energy to produce a steel stud than to produce a wood stud. Five times more energy is used for aluminum siding than wood siding. Steel, both new and recycled, uses 4,000 times more coal, oil, and gas in its refining, manufacturing, and fabricating process than does wood. Wood has eight times the thermal resistance or insulating capability of concrete, 413 times that of steel and 2,000 times that of aluminum.
Wood is an environmentally friendly resource. It is recyclable and biodegradable. The forests
from which our wood is derived provide for wildlife habitat. They also act as natural air filters,
absorbing unwanted carbon dioxide gas contributing to global warming—and release breathable oxygen.
Indeed, from its first recorded use 4,000 years ago to its continued use today, wood has become an integral component of everyday life.