GREEN BUILDING WITH BRTF

BRTF customers believe in building greener, more sustainable homes for themselves and their families. Buildings have a tremendous impact on the environment – both during construction and through the life cycle of the building. Choosing to build a Blue Ridge Timber Frame is an important component in minimizing your home’s effect on the ecosystem and reducing overall energy consumption. Moreover, the direct result for you and your family is lower energy bills and a much safer and healthier living environment.

Timber frame homes, today more than ever, are constructed with sustainability in mind while maintaining the outstanding beauty, aesthetics, and craftsmanship that exemplifies a truly energy efficient and unique home. With the addition of energy efficient panels, use of eco-friendly insulation, small amount of building waste, and selection of low-impact materials, we are setting the standard on environmentally friendly building. At our timber frame shop, we even burn the timber cuttings to heat our building using an extremely efficient wood stove.

BUILD A GREEN AND ENERGY EFFICIENT TIMBER FRAME HOME

From the types of wood to the site location, it is possible to build a green and sustainable timber frame home. The following information outlines some of the common solutions we offer to our clients who are as concerned as we are with stewardship of the planet and incorporating these solutions into their timber frame design plans.

SUSTAINABLE FORESTS FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING

As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas believed to be a major cause of global warming. The carbon continues to be stored as the tree grows until the wood eventually burns or decays, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. Sustainable forests that are harvested and manufactured into building products continue to store the carbon dioxide within the products. Meanwhile, the forest regenerates with young trees that absorb even more carbon dioxide — thus achieving a net reduction in global emissions. As a result, the cycle of wood use and forest regeneration becomes an important tool in the fight against global warming.

RECYCLABLE-BIODEGRADABLE

Today, most major cities have wood recycling programs. Additionally, there is an increasing trend to reuse architectural detailing or create entirely new products from old, such as flooring made from reclaimed beams. Scrap wood can be chipped for particleboard or other composite products or mulched for landscaping or animal bedding. Since wood is a natural resource, wood products that do end up in landfill sites are biodegradable.