Sustainability

Our forestry mission statement:

 

Old Wood is dedicated to the sustainability, improvement, and proper utilization of our forests, both domestically and abroad. We hope that our model will build well- equipped, trained local capacity to the end of creating global markets for scientifically, socially and ecologically planned micro-forest industries. Our goal is to enable the locals to manage their own mountains and landscapes, and to help them realize profit and benefit so they won’t have to “eat the elephants” in those very backyards. Wood products are everywhere, and we look for the highest, best uses for the most available species in forms both attractive and useful to our sophisticated clientele.

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We use Ponderosa, Douglas Fir, White fir and other species from regional forest management efforts as well as fire burned, “reclaimed” materials.

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Mesquite is gotten from well-run efforts in Texas, and our Piñon, Juniper, and Salt Cedar are generally from the Alamo Navajo Tribe. We have projects going in Hermosillo, Mexico and elsewhere for mesquite, oak and other interesting, well-gotten woods.

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We are always on the lookout for partners and collaborators with a shared vision for well-done forestry benefitting the “greater good”.

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Old Wood is a Deeply

Green Company

 

If I use a new water based polymer instead of some nasty petro-based stuff am I now green? Not necessarily. The truth is much deeper.

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Our mission statement talks about equipping the folks who live on the side of the mountain (anywhere!) to do a good, scientific and aesthetic job of managing that mountain, sharing the profits from beautifully made, well marketed products on the global market and then, they won’t have to eat the monkeys and elephants in the back yard to stay alive. They can buy their kids a pair of shoes and see a movie occasionally. Triple Bottom Line, Fair Trade, Natural Capitalism all combine in our growing model to ‘do a good job’ in a relevant, deeply Green manner.

The current global wood situation is driven by the worlds desire for the finest hardwood flooring in most cases. Flooring is a huge market. Vast. The market rules.
People want ‘nice floors’ in their homes. Naturally. What if that floor incorporates leading edge beauty, design, scientifically green or inert coatings and is an overall ‘plus’ in terms of carbon sequestration, social action, individual empowerment? We are wholly transparent, right through to our books for certain parties.
Trust matters to us.

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Do you trust the ‘Liquidators’ of the world? The Big Box stores? How about the ‘clerk’ in the average floor store? Are they thinking on this global scale?

I have watched what is essentially deconstructed wood, glued together into sheets, in turn glued, pressed and manipulated cosmetically, become the new world standard for ‘good and green’ flooring. It’s called engineered flooring folks and while I will not deny there are lots of spiffy things to do with plywood but you can’t convince me that the whole ‘carbon footprint’ of all that impressive and by the way, huge and expensive machinery made product, is in any way green. Too much glue, too much electricity, too much diesel for that to be true. It’s the money folks. Done on a large scale (there is no such thing as a small scale plywood/engineered floor factory), it’s about the money. Ask the Chinese central government what they spent building those factories. Ask the freight companies what it would cost to haul all those veneer logs back to China if the containers from Wally World weren’t sitting on the dock empty waiting for a back haul. Folks, the Chinese can haul dirt if they want to it’s so cheap. By the way, what goes into those logs, the wood used for the thinly sliced ‘tops’ in your engineered floor are a veneer grade or close to it. Veneer by definition, is the best of the best, aka the most lovely trees. Top dollar is paid in the US for the best logs.

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Old Wood is building our entire model on the highest best use for the lowest grades of logs. Sure, we use good wood but we do NOT walk into a forest and cut the biggest, most beautiful tree EVER. In fact, our model speaks specifically to preserving old and large tree wherever we find them. I have told more than one supplier we don’t want wood from those ‘big fat punkin’s’ they want me to get excited about. We have to walk the walk. Give us a chance to succeed and grow our influence in many beneficial ways by letting us, make great floor, for you!