What is Green?

At New Forest Strategies, we set out to find what the term REALLY means. We found that, for the most part, the term has become a marketing tool, bending the term to fit the need. For example, If lumber is harvested from a sustainable forest, it can be treated with poison and still considered a “ green” product. Or if an old growth forest is cut to the ground, after many hundreds of years of growth, and then replanted , even though the natural life cycle is far beyond what the forest will be harvested at, it can be “ certified” sustainable. Or if a product has 15% of  the ingredients making it up , reclaimed from recycled material, it is a “ green” product, even though the other 85% is certainly not green. All of  these marketing gimmicks were polluting the  original intention.

We are not preservationists. Quite the contrary, we are die hard conservationists. We believe that there is a natural balance between nature and humans. We set out to determine “what is Green” and , once the definition was arrived at, how could we best meet it. The following is our definition of green and how we believe we are striving to meet the lofty goal of “Ultra-Green”.

1.  A truly sustainable forest is one that must be harvested at the age of life that the trees have matured to their fullest. That is, all properties of the lumber yielded must be fully developed. We use forests that have reached the peak of growth at 25-35 years maximum. Thus, these same forests can be planted and harvested at least three times during our lifetime. Many forests are being granted status as sustainable. However, for the properties of Second or Third growth forests to develop, it takes much longer than the 40-50 years at which the trees are being harvested. This holds true for many of the commercial species being used for building material today. So we must use trees planted for fiber that are fast growing and truly sustainable. If we plant more trees than we use, so much the better!
2. If the lumber, manufactured from the sustainable trees, is to be protected from insects, mold, mildew, and fire, it must be treated with an environmentally friendly chemical. Treating lumber from a sustainable forest with a heavy metal or poison such as CCA ( Copper,Chromium, and Arsenic) certainly can not be called a “ Green” product. In fact, the insecticides, fungicides and fire treatments, developed today, are poisoning our ground by the leaching and off-gassing of these chemicals. To say that once dry the chemical are “locked in” is highly suspect at best! We must use an environmentally friendly chemical if we are to fit the “ultra green” definition.
3. By the very definition, any product containing plastic cannot be a truly green product. Plastic off-gasses into our environment for the life of the product. Poly Propylene, Poly Vinyl Chloride, and any other combination of chemicals used to make a plastic or solid compound, cannot be “Green”. In order to be “ ultra-green”, we realized that not only must our treatment be environmentally  friendly, we must have a treatment that when “set” becomes completely inert with absolutely no off-gassing.
4. Any truly “green product must be able to be either recycled or have nor harming effect on the environment  upon disposal. In order to be ultra-green, a lumber product must be able to be either recycled or disposed of with no harmful off-gassing.
5. After taking all of the above criteria into account, the culmination of 18 years of scientific research resulted in patented “BioCore” technology. With this technology, we are able to treat lumber with an environmentally friendly process, which, when finished, results in an inert state. We searched the worlds forests to find truly sustainable, plantation grown, timber. We discovered what we were looking for in country of New Zealand  with Radiata Pine forests, and the state of Oregon with  Ponderosa Pine, plantation grown, timber.
6. After finding that this plantation grown timber took to our process very well, we found that by accident, design, and synergy, our products contained plantation grown timber, NO harmful chemicals, thus no off-gassing, and no plastics at all. We believe that  with the “BioCore” treatment, we have produced the first truly “ultra-green” insect resistant, mold resistant, fire retardant, product in the decking known as DreamDex!