Our pledge to the Planet

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Environment

Ours is a much maligned industry. Environmental groups like to attack the forestry and wood products industry as being bad for the environment because, “we cut down trees”. These groups get a lot of media coverage and have even managed to convince a lot of the general public that wood products and forestry are bad. While we agree with the idea of cleaning up the environment, and respecting everyones efforts, science does tell us a different story. We, as a company and an industry, must do a better job educating the public on the environmental advantages of wood products, as there are many. These are some of the major reasons, backed up by science, why wood products still have an environmental advantage over other building materials:

  • Wood is the only major building material that is renewable, and is sustainable as long as proper forest management practices are followed.
  • Wood is also the only major building material that is Carbon-neutral. This means as long as the wood is in use, the carbon absorbed during the growth of the tree is stored in it.
  • Fewer resources are used in the extraction of the raw material, than it takes for the extraction of raw materials of other building materials.
  • The production of wood products generates less air and water pollution than does production of other building materials, and therefore produces less greenhouse gas.

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However, this does not mean that we do not need to improve our environmental record and reduce our carbon footprint. RS Cabinet Doors is determined to do just that. These are some of the measures that RS Doors has undertaken so far:

  • Our major resource usage is, of course, raw wood so our main concern is to ensure that all of our wood is coming from responsibly managed forests. We want all of our wood suppliers to be forest certified, which requires the company to meet rigorous standards. Currently, all our suppliers are either already certified, or are in the process of being certified, so you can be assured that any wood products purchased here have been harvested in a sustainable manner.
  • We admit that our industry and our company in particular, has had a poor record of hauling wood waste to landfills. RS Doors has dramatically reduced the volume of our wood waste that ends up in the landfill, and our goal is to reduce that to zero by the end of this year.
  • We have undertaken many measures to improve our yields in our plant, thereby reducing waste product.
  • Any of our “Seconds” (product that does not meet our manufacturing specifications), are sent to Habitat for Humanity, where they are re-sold and re-used.
  • Wood scrap that cannot be re-used anywhere else in our operation is put in a wood chipper and the resulting chips are sold to farms. These farms use it for bedding in their barns and then after that use, it is spread on their fields as fertilizer, so it is completely recycled back to the earth.

We realize that there is improvement yet to be made, and we will continue on that path. Our firm belief is that, responsibly managed in a sustainable manner, the forestry and wood products industry can continue to be successful and contribute to a cleaner environment for future generations.

Darren Hayward
Vice-President & Sales Manager
RS Cabinet Doors Ltd.

Valley

RS

© 2009 RS Cabinet Doors Ltd.