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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dovetail is Pulling Up Stakes! After almost 3 years in our suburban home, Dovetail has found new office space in downtown Minneapolis. We're breaking camp here in White Bear Lake, and as of September 1st, we will be located in the Hennepin Center for the Arts, 528 Hennepin Avenue, Suite 202, Minneapolis, MN 55403.
The building is owned and operated by Artspace, America's leading nonprofit real estate developer for the arts. The mission of Artspace Projects is “to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations.” Artspace is also active in green building and sustainable development. Please watch for our new contact details. They will be posted to our website as soon as possible and announced in the September newsletter.
Even though we've been busy getting ready for the big move, we did manage to generate a couple of reports this month. We offer you information about:
We also offer a commentary on another way of understanding what might be driving overconsumption and preventing a vision of greater global sustainability. While you're busy reading - we'll keep packing! Enjoy!
- Jeff
Innovations in Design & Construction: Opportunities for the Wood Industry Have Tropical Woods in Your Product Line? – How to Know if They Were Harvested Legally, Responsibly FSC Pesticides Policy: Understanding the Intentions & Proposed Changes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting past fears and enabling sustainable behaviors In previous Dovetail articles and commentaries we've expounded at length on the need for a vision of the kind of world we want to live in and to leave for our children. We've also addressed the perils of the commoditization of natural resources, including the threat to both the resources and the firms that utilize them. Overall, rising per capita consumption seems to be at the heart of the world's current economic and environmental stress and in some regions it appears as though people are engaging in totally unconstrained consumption behavior. The question arises as to why we are so willing to engage in what appears to be such an irrational and self-destructive behavior. Is it simply resistance to change from a long held pattern or something subtler?Yet discussions of any change in these behaviors quickly become emotional. Also, it has been said that there are really only two base emotions, love and fear. Thus, the question arises, is it possible that at the heart of our drive to over consume is some form of fear? To read the entire commentary, click here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D o v e t a i l R e p o r t s All publications are available online at: http://www.dovetailinc.org/publications.html Innovations in Design & Construction Opportunities for the Wood Industry Alison Lindburg The wood products industry is not generally recognized as having a creative, innovative approach to product development and marketing. Yet dramatic changes in wood products have occurred over the past several decades. A recent tour of a new home under construction revealed those changes in great clarity. Less than 5% of the wood in the house was traditional solid wood framing lumber. Instead there were finger jointed and oriented strand studs, both floor and roof trusses, laminated veneer lumber headers and carrying beams, pressure treated oriented strand posts, insulation board wall sheathing, and oriented strand board roof sheathing. This is not to mention the wood plastic composite decking and rail systems as well as the fiber-cement based siding and trim. This is dramatically different than the traditional stick built home of only 10-15 years ago. To read the introduction and download the report, click here. Have Tropical Woods in Your Product Line? How to Know if They Were Harvested Legally, Responsibly Jim Bowyer A number of months ago Dovetail was contacted by an individual who wanted to know if Ipe, the tropical wood increasingly used for decking, is sustainable. The best that we could do was to say that the species is reported to be relatively abundant in the countries of origin and is not on any CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) lists. Not knowing anything about the specific supplier and being as the supplier is not a participant in any certification program, we could not with confidence say that the material had been responsibly harvested. A challenge for any
responsible distributor is validating supplier claims of sustainability,
and determining with confidence that a given shipment originated in a
responsibly managed and harvested forest unit. A
number of options are available today to firms large and small, and becoming
involved is far easier than most people think. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Pesticides Policy Understanding the Intentions & Proposed Changes Matthew Wenban-Smith The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)'s certification standards include requirements regarding the use of pesticides in forest management activities. FSC's pesticides policy aims to provide consistent, international guidance for the implementation of these requirements.
Over the last 12 months this policy has been the subject of some intense discussion. Much of the discussion has focused around what pesticides are considered “the most hazardous ones” and therefore restricted for use on FSC-certified lands. This article explains the basis of the policy, clarifies the current debate, and suggests some areas where further development may be useful. To read the introduction and download the report, click here.
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