Timber our Future

Timber windows, doors and conservatories are made from hardwood trees, a fully renewable source of raw material, which must be harvested regularly in order to maintain the vital balance of growth between new, young trees and mature, established trees. It is the balance of growth rate which is meant when we hear of sustainability and properly managed forests. If trees were not cropped in this way, our forests and their eco-systems would eventually become unable to fulfil their role in supplying the world’s oxygen. Trees store carbon in their leaves, wood end roots. They respire Oxygen. Using more timber, planting more trees and before they become too old are important means to help reduce global warming.

We at Shaw’s are committed to sustainable, properly monitored, forest management initiatives. Trees live longer than any other life form. Some still living are thousands of years old. The first to evolve, 275 million years ago, were the evergreen softwood, or conifers.

Hardwoods, broad-leaved, flowering and fruit-bearing trees appeared 140 million years later, but were less resistant to climate change than the softwoods, which now make up large forests in the northern hemisphere. 

The names softwood and hardwood refer to differences in structure of the wood, rather than density. Softwood bear cones and have needles or scale-like leaves. Their seeds are not enclosed in a pod, like hardwood seeds. These conifers supply most of the world’s timber. Hardwoods, which are broad-leaved and produce fruits and flowers, are deciduose, meaning that in temperate areas they shad their leaves in autumn. Their seeds are enclosed in cases with either one or two lobes, monocotyledoneae or dicotyledoneae. Most commercial hardwoods belong to this second group.