WholeTrees Transforms Forest Waste into Structural Building Material

WholeTrees® Architecture & Structures, a Madison, Wis., USA, based products and technology company, provides an incentive for healthy forest management by taking what would otherwise be forest waste and transforming it into a highly valued construction material. Without management of natural waste such as fallen timbers too small to be milled, forests risk insect and disease infestation and high concentrations of fuel buildup or fire. Current international economic conditions deter such management due to low market values for small trees. 

 

WholeTrees has developed a proprietary manufacturing process with structural components based on research conducted with the USDA Forest Products Laboratory and funded in part by the USDA Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant program. This process allows WholeTrees to cost-effectively source and manufacture the small, unwanted portion of trees removed from routine forest thinning, such as diseased or invasive trees (called small diameter round-timber). 

 

WholeTrees seeks to offer solutions to internationally relevant issues such as sustainable forestry, climate stabilization and habitat restoration. Their products store carbon while displacing the pollution and carbon from the use of steel and concrete. Well-managed forests increase the up-take of carbon and can diversify forest habitats.