Is Timber Really The Environmentally Preferable Material to uPVC?

You may be under the impression that uPVC is not particularly environmentally friendly. This is, however, a misconception.

In a report undertaken by the German Institute for Construction with Plastics on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Environmental Planning, Construction and Urban Development, the long-term characteristics of uPVC were identified as follows:

“Faults on windows using uPVC profiles occur usually in the operating mechanism or the seals, ie the components that are not made of uPVC. Hence the long term characteristics are determined by the durability, low maintenance and wear characteristics of the components installed into the PVC window frames and not by those of the frame itself. Since the PVC window frames do not have to be painted with fungicides or protective coatings, no maintenance of the frame is required apart from cleaning.”

All too often the premise that timber is necessarily an environmentally superior material is simply accepted as part of the “natural is better than synthetic” assumption.

Life Cycle Analyses of PVC and timber in window profiles were conducted by Entec UK Limited for the DETR (DEFRA) in early 2001 and also for Manchester City Council in September 2001. In analysing the various impacts across the life cycle, they compared data from other LCA studies. Entec found that, “The difference found by the German Federation Environmental Agency between the environmental performance of wood and uPVC profiles, are consistent with the findings of the DETR 2000 study such that there are only marginal differences in the environmental performance. This will particularly be the case where recycled uPVC is used in the profiles and lead and cadmium based stabilisers are avoided.”

In fact, the timber industry itself has not been without its own environmental critics. Historically, it was the environmental campaigns against the timber industry which helped give a high profile and an increasing momentum to the emerging environmental organisation’s claim, for example, that some 10% of the world’s varieties of trees are threatened with extinction, and nearly 80% of ancient forests have been destroyed.

Naturally, the plastics and other industries would challenge the premises and assumptions that claim environmental superiority for timber, but you may be surprised to learn that leading environmental NGO’s including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have severely criticised the timber industry on its environmental performance. While such organisations have also criticised the petrochemicals industry, their commentary on the timber industry serves to balance the environmental debate on uPVC window materials.

In its report, “Seeing The Wood For The Trees – What the UK Timber Industry Doesn’t Tell You About the World’s Forests” Friends of the Earth portray a quite different picture of the timber industry and associated forestry issues, to the one commonly perceived by the public and specifiers. In this report, Friends of the Earth claim that:

• The (timber) industry does not have adequate evidence to substantiate its claims that timber is, overall, better for the environment than any other material;
• The timber industry’s forest management practices (including tree planting) can damage the environment;
• The temperate and boreal forests of the world are far from being sustainably managed;
• Logging for timber is causing deforestation;
• The timber industry does not have adequate evidence to show that it is helping to meet the threat of climate change, and it may even be adding to the problem.

 The Friends of the Earth discuss a number of common perceptions relating to timber.

Timber Is Not Necessarily The Best

Friends of the Earth challenge the assertion that timber is environmentally preferred by pointing out that, while the environmental problems associated with the timber industry tend to be of a different nature to the issues facing other competing industries, these problems should not be ranked below them in terms of importance.

Quantity of Trees is Not the Real Issue

While the Friends of the Earth acknowledge that trees are not a scarce resource per se they argue that the real environmental danger lies in the logging of ancient or old-growth forests. The logging of these forests can lead to a decrease in biodiversity, as habitats are destroyed in the logging process. Tree plantations are grown, in their place, for the intense farming of timber and wood products. This itself, claim the Friends of the Earth, can lead to soil erosion and nutrient degradation, vulnerability to pest attack, reduction in water supply, over use of fertilisers and social impacts.

The Friends of the Earth urge caution in accepting claims of an increase in forested areas. Scandinavia presents an interesting example relating to the misconceptions surrounding so-called “sustainable forestry” Friends of the Earth comment “More trees are not a good thing when they are replacing valuable wildlife habitats. Scandinavia has now just 5% of its original old-growth forest remaining yet this is still being logged. Also almost 50% of Finland’s peat bogs have been drained, mostly for planting managed forests.

The Friends of the Earth report catalogues similar environmental problems associated with logging in other major producer countries. The Friends of the Earth looks at the association of timber with global warming and questions more assumptions about the environmental credentials of timber. They accuse the timber industry of over simplifying the global warming issue in their favour, and assert that, “using timber is also likely to contribute to the growing threat of global warming, especially if it is from old-growth forests.

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• Double glazing cuts heat lost through windows by half.
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