What Is Wrong With This Picture?

What is wrong here?

What is wrong with this picture?

During my most recent visit to Hopkin’s sawmill, located in northern Maine, the owner of the mill, a Mr. Steve Hopkins, told me to check out his new delivery of wood that he had ordered for an upcoming project. (Yes, he does own a wood mill but spruce is not milled at every mill including Steve’s.)

Now to assist with helping you determine what is wrong with this pic might I remind you that Maine is the most forested state in the lower 48. In fact, approximately 90% of Maine is forested. And the thriving Maine Wood Products Industry intends to increase its value from $8.5 billion to $12 billion by 2025.

So why on God’s green earth would Steve Hopkins, who resides in northern Maine, receive a delivery of wood from Holmen, one of the largest forest owners in SWEDEN?!?!?!?!?!?!? (This is the answer to the question BTW)

This pandemic has exposed the susceptibility of these impractical, unwieldly supply chains but to be honest we should all have been banging on the alarm bells a long time ago. It seems that distribution and poorly managed capitalism have supplanted common sense and it is time that we took back control for the good of our communities and the good of our planet.

Buy Local Wood should be more than just a bumper sticker. It should be a way of life. We, at the Lumbery, are trying to set the standard but our goal is to have our model replicated by all purveyors of wood and frankly everything else.

We highly recommend asking your builder to source local building materials. The price is more often than not the same or lower and the quality is higher across the board (Pun intended).

The following is taken from an article written by Rives Taylor on 10/26/21 for Gensler

What if we saw the supply chain crisis as an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide? According to Forbes, shipping alone makes up 3% of all emissions and 10% of transportation-related emissions.

By sourcing all materials and products exclusively from local, regional, or domestic sources, we could make serious inroads toward cutting down on the carbon emissions associated with the building environment. The lockdowns and quarantine orders in the first half of 2020 improved air quality across the globe by reducing transportation-related emissions — and sourcing locally could do the same.

The benefit to the carbon footprint of the construction industry could be enormous. The building sector accounts for nearly 40% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, and over a quarter of that is due to embodied carbon, the impact of extracting, manufacturing, and transporting construction materials. Globally, building materials currently account for 11% of emissions; however, as building operations get more efficient over the next three decades, embodied carbon could rise to represent about half of building-related emissions, according to Architecture 2030. Minimizing materials impact is a powerful tool for fighting climate change.

To learn more about the Maine forests I recommend visiting MaineTree. This is a great organization and great site.

And for more info about sourcing locally please visit us or shoot us an email. We would be happy to chat.
Sincerely,

Michael Friedland and the entire Lumbery Crew AKA Ents.
LUMBERY
mainewood@lumbery-me.com
www.lumbery-me.com