Sustainability

Birch symbolises growth, renewal, stability, and adaptability in Celtic culture because it is highly adaptive and able to sustain harsh conditions with casual indifference.

Birch trees have a strong connection with the celebration of Beltane, one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals celebrated on May 1st. This may be due to the fact that birch trees are among the first to come into leaf, and therefore would have made a obvious choice as a representation of spring.

Beith meaning Birch is the first letter in the Ogham alphabet.

Romanticism poet Samuel Coleridge called the birch tree the “Lady of the woods”.

Responsible forestry is replacing every harvested tree with a new tree. Several organizations audit forests to allow makers know certified wood that comes from sustainable forests from other illegal woods or unsustainable sources.

Cutting down trees to make buildings and products has been done for centuries and will hopefully continue for centuries to come as long as it is done right. You can make sure our forests are replenished by checking that the products you buy are made from certified woods. We will always indicate such labels clearly.

But are forest certification standards good enough? Dr. Constance McDermott at the University of Oxford thinks that we can do better. Look foward to exploring all of these opportunties when buying more than a few sheets at a time.

A laminated-wood product made by bonding several thin layers of wood together. The result is strong and stable.

layers of inner plies are 1.5 mm-thick solid birch veneer, cross-banded, and laminated with exterior grade

E0/Formaldehyde-free-plywood is minimal offgassing. (E1 plywood, minimum legal requirement)

The layout of parts to be cut from plywood sheets is known as ‘nesting’. Efficient design aims to use as much of a sheet as possible in order to reduce waste.