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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Lumber industry group
splinters off from
BIA-HawaiiThe newly formed Hawaii Lumber Products Association hasn't exactly broken away from the Building Industry Association of Hawaii.
Most, if not all, of its founding members are members of BIA so there has been no split, to use another woodworking metaphor.
Founders include Honolulu Wood Treating Co. Inc., Hawaii Planing Mill Ltd., Hardware Hawaii Ace, Honsador Lumber Corp., Hale Kauai Ltd., Miyake Concrete Accessories Inc., Plywood Hawaii Inc. and Rinell Wood Systems Inc.
Association President Hap Person, also president of Honolulu Wood Treating, said the new association is a strong supporter of BIA and his 48-year-old company has been a member since it formed more than 20 years ago.
However, "that group is really designed around builder issues, builder interests, lobbying and construction issues, where the Hawaii Lumber Products Association ... is really designed to talk about wood and lumber, particularly lumber in construction." It is akin to the Steel Alliance or similar organizations for masonry and other building materials, he said.
The association will promote the "green" aspects of building with wood and wood products.
"It is the greenest product," said Person. It's also renewable, like corn, he said. "You regrow it and regrow it."
"Wood, as a building material, has certainly been around the longest and has a great history."
Of course, there was the unfortunate three-little-pigs incident.
Person acknowledged that bricks and mortar withstood the blowhard wolf's onslaught in that case, but still believes in the strength of wood.
"Wood has been taken for granted and the builders haven't been able to keep up with the changing technologies," he said.
Advances have resulted in so-called engineered wood products, which are made from wood fiber and are "generally created to be, in most cases, stronger and straighter than dimensional wood" such as two-by-fours and other cut lumber.
Such products are treated during the manufacturing process "so they get 100 percent penetration," he said.
There also has been advances in the old-fashioned treatments so arsenic and heavy metals are no longer used. He delineated many other benefits of wood, but what you're reading is only measured in column inches, not board feet.
BIA-Hawaii Chief Executive Officer Karen Nakamura supports the new organization in getting its green building initiative out there.
"What we're trying to do is bring together the industry in promoting green building," she said.
Many of the new group's members will participate in the BIA Home Building and Remodeling show the first weekend in February.
The group seeks to get its "wood is good" word out to home builders, buyers, architects, contractors and just about anybody who will listen. The association invites interested Hawaii and mainland companies to join by calling Person at 682-5704.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com