The Davis residence on Chuckanut Drive, Bellingham, Washington
© Benjamin Benschneider All Rights Reserved.
By Gabriela Taylor
Homes should be thoughtful, sustainable, and built for life. These are some of the core values at NextHaus Alliance. So how do windows and doors fit into these values? When we focus the topic on wood windows and doors, the answer becomes much more apparent.
At Sierra Pacific, our business, culture, and operations are engrained in the wood, if you will. With roots running over 70 years deep and with the sustainable management of nearly two million acres of timberland in California and Washington State, we are unquestionably on the “wood is good” train.
To bring it back to the original question, how do windows and doors make your home thoughtful, sustainable and built for life? The answer is simple. Just as these are core values for NextHaus Alliance, these are core characteristics of wood, therefore core characteristics of wood windows and doors.
Thoughtful:
Unlike many other things, wood does, in fact, grow on trees. That said, sustainably managing a forest, replanting, using every single part of said tree, and custom building every window and door produced by the same company that planted the seed is a very thoughtful process. With the use of modern forest management practices that closely mimic natural forest events and technology that gives us the ability to monitor forest conditions, our impact on the environment is drastically minimized. Professional foresters and natural resource specialists assure that wildlife habitat and other forest values are protected. This thoughtful foresight is something very unique and a value much desired in the resilient home design-build process.
Sustainable:
The sustainable properties of wood are well known. Obviously, a renewable material, when wood is used in the construction and design of a home the building’s carbon footprint lowers by first storing the carbon and second by avoiding greenhouse gas emissions otherwise emitted by materials such as steel or concrete. The potential to reclaim and reuse wood is an additional factor in its sustainable quality.
Built for Life:
The benefits of incorporating wood into the architecture and design of a home are also well known. Along with creating an aesthetically-pleasing environment that increases comfort levels, wood has been proven to:
Improve attention and focus
Generate greater creativity
Reduce pain perception
With all of these points, in addition to the benefits of natural daylight from windows and doors, the result is a perfectly matched product for any homeowner, builder, or architect who is striving to achieve a sustainable home design. Wood really is good.
To learn more about Sierra Pacific Windows, visit www.sierrapacificwindows.com.
Gabriela Taylor is the Architectural Consultant – Chicago, for Sierra Pacific Windows, a Division of Sierra Pacific Industries and a member of the NextHaus Alliance.
