Green Building with Steel ____________________________________________________________ _____________Environmental Stress Building with wood is becoming increasingly problematic. Although it is classified as a renewable resource, every day more timber is cut down that will never be replaced. Each year, 78 million acres of rainforest are cleared, a rate that will strip the planet by 2060. America has lost almost all of its old-growth timber. To keep up with demand for wood, lumber companies plant second and third-generation forests of rapidly growing trees and harvest them after only 20 years or less. The result is lower quality domestic lumber and increasing demand to import old-growth rainforest woods. To break this destructive cycle, we must reduce our reliance on wood. Slash and burn deforestation Environmental Success The most attractive alternative to wood in residential construction is steel. Not only is it a superior building material, but steel has the added advantage of being almost 100% recyclable. In fact, steel is the most successfully recycled material on earth. Despite the well-intentioned campaigns encouraging people to recycle household plastic, glass, and paper products, it often costs more to reuse these materials than it does to produce them anew. Steel is another matter. Virtually every product made from steel -- from cars and refrigerators to bridge supports -- contains between 25% and 65% recycled material, and when these products reach the end of their useful life they can be recycled again into high quality steel for new products. Best of all, steel recycling saves energy and protects valuable resources. Health Benefits Your steel home will not only contribute to a healthy environment, but it will benefit your family's health as well. Steel contains none of the irritating and even toxic chemicals used to treat so many of the wood products currently used in construction. Steel also does not support the pest infestations, rot, and mold that can introduce disease-carrying spores and bacteria into your home. In short, steel provides a safe, clean, environment for you and your family, one that is both natural and free from man-made and environmental health hazards.
Home buyers, Investors, Realtors, Developers ..
FYI _________________________________________________________ Most people assume that global warming is caused by burning oil and gas. But in fact between 25 and 30 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year – 1.6 billion tonnes – is caused by deforestation. Forests have four major roles in climate change: they currently contribute about one-sixth of global carbon emissions when cleared, overused or degraded; they react sensitively to a changing climate; when managed sustainably, they produce wood fuels as a benign alternative to fossil fuels; and finally, they have the potential to absorb about one-tenth of global carbon emissions projected for the first half of this century into their biomass, soils and products and store them - in principle in perpetuity.