Environmental Responsibility

Allegheny Wood Works, Inc. (AWW) understands the need for environmental stewardship beginning with the lumber purchasing phase and continuing throughout the manufacturing process. Both owners have environmentally related degrees and are avid outdoor enthusiasts. They bring this knowledge and appreciation to the everyday operations and long-term planning of AWW.

Lumber Purchasing:

One of the co-founders of Allegheny Wood Works was the Founding Chairman of the Pennsylvania Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). SFI works with conservation, community, government and industry partners to improve sustainable forest management in North America and fiber sourcing globally. AWW purchases lumber from sources that participate in either SFI or in FSC. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.

Manufacturing:

AWW does not send any of its wood waste to a landfill. The majority of the sawdust from the operation goes to making pellets for wood stoves. All of the scrap wood and part of the sawdust stream is turned into steam heat for the entire manufacturing plant. We are almost entirely self-sufficient from a heating standpoint. These systems that we have installed, stop the waste stream to the landfill, and greatly reduce our use of natural gas or electricity for heat.

The glue that we use in our process is a non-formaldehyde based product.

Other Initiatives:

We also recycle everything that we can: from paper and aluminum cans, to steel from replaced equipment, to printer cartridges. If it can be recycled we do it.

Our most recent initiative involves our land ownership. Our manufacturing facility sits on approximately 8 acres of land. Rather than sell parcels of this land for industrial development, we have decided to maintain and develop it as green space within this industrial sector of town. Afforestation (tree planting on land that was previously unforested) and wildlife plantings of this acreage will store carbon and create new wildlife habitat.