Step this way to get your daily fix of green news, eco product launches and videos delivered by email.
Log fires are great; there's nothing like the crackle of burning wood to add a bit of festive glow to an evening. If though, like me, you don't have a handy forest in your back garden, you will need to buy in your firewood. Which is where BioRegional comes in. This UK company is fuelling the sustainable energy movement with a new branded range of carbon-neutral kindling and firewood in B&Q stores, which is guaranteed to come from a constantly replenished and managed forest, and to be grown relatively near the shops it's stocked in.
Buying wood is usually quite tricky as it's difficult to tell whether the wood has come from a nice sustainable forest where new trees are planted to replace those cut down, or somewhere less reputable. Secondly, you don't know how far it has been shipped, so it's impossible to tell what the carbon footprint of bringing it to your home is. The nearer to your house it was grown, the more environmentally friendly it is as a fuel.
BioRegional deals with 25 producers, which ship to nearby shops, reducing the travel costs and emissions as much as possible. They even offset the rest by donating to the Climate Care scheme. Because BioRegional gathers up 25 smaller producers into one large company, they have more bargaining power with large chains, and so this year have managed to get stocked in B&Q.
As well as reducing the emissions involved in producing and shipping the wood, you know that when you choose this fuel over others you are helping UK wildlife, because the wood comes from traditional UK woodlands which are managed in a way that helps woodland flowers, butterflies and birds -- as monitored by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). You are also giving rural employment a boost, which enables more families to avoid having to make the move to a city or town. Quite aside from all these benefits, it's supposed to be pretty good firewood, too.
"The market is flooded with poor quality, unseasoned firewood harvested from softwood trees such as pine which burn too quickly, spit, smoke and clog up chimney flues," says Sarah Mooney, BioRegional's Firewood Manager. "Our producers use the best firewood species, such as oak and ash, which are easy to light and burn steadily."
16 November 2007 09:45am
how can the burning of wood be considered carbon neutral? Isn't that absurd on its face?
17 November 2007 12:13pm
Not if you think about it - the CO2 the wood emits when it's burned is balanced out by the CO2 the tree took out of the air during its lifetime. There's also the question of 'fuel miles'. If firewood is sourced very locally, it arguably has a much smaller carbon footprint than, say, gas or oil, which will usually have been piped or driven hundreds (if not thousands) of miles, emitting CO2 in the process.
28 November 2007 12:43pm
We aren't able to know how much CO2 took from the air during it's life because we have to take in account all the leaves and branches that have fallen of of it during all its life. And we also have to take in account the different processes that it has to suffer before it gets to your house (as well as the trips).
Please note: Your email address must be entered but will not be displayed
Please note: All submitted content becomes the sole property of CNET Networks UK and may be used, edited or rejected at CNET Networks UK's sole discretion. You acknowledge that you, not CNET Networks UK, are responsible for the contents of your submission.
Step this way to get your daily fix of green news, eco product launches and videos delivered by email.
