Celebrating Environmental, Aesthetic Design and Innovative Excellence
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atures’ palette of exotic wood spe- the Environmental Excellence and Aesthetic cies enables award winning design. Design Excellence Awards for their innovaUsing lesser-known species has the tive new decking concept, Ipanema®, which added benefit of advancing sus- utilizes 36 FSC-certified lesser-known species. tainable forest management; it is just one of 37 ways in which we’re celebrating this year’s Aesthetic Design and Environmental Excellence IWPA awards program winners. “The design possibilities are endless with exotic The IWPA Awards Program, now in its second year, recognizes excellence for the use of woods,” says Joel Osterloh, commercial direcimported wood in the categories of aesthetic, tor for Elof Hansson USA. The natural beauty innovative design and environmental steward- and distinctive appearance of exotic wood is derived from the inherent qualities and charship. The awards are designed to bring about a greater knowledge and awareness of the ben- acteristics of the wood itself. Exotic woods are recognized for their unique characteristics of efits of using tropical wood. Acknowledging the best practices and innovation occurring weather, insect and rot resistance. “The benin the exotic wood industry also encourages designers, architects and U.S. manufacturers to expand their palette of wood opportunities. This year’s winners share the common thread of innovation and use of a total of 37 new species in ways never seen before. The IWPA recognized UCS Forest Group with the Innovative Excellence Award for bringing Accoya® wood to market. Accoya® is produced from fast growing species that is essentially transformed into a product with performance characteristics similar to tropical hardwoods. Elof Hansson USA received both
efit to designers and contractors in specifying Ipanema® is that it gives us as suppliers the flexibility to quickly deliver the best possible product. Plus it will cost less than the wellknown decking species,” adds Osterloh. “The species we use are all FSC-certified and they all have similar performance characteristics. The Ipanema® brand allows us to provide wood species that work for the designer, but are also most appropriate from a forest management point of view,” says Osterloh. “Typically, the most abundant tree species in any given tropical forest area are not well-known in the timber trade.” Elof carefully selects lesser-known woods, 36
Elof Hansson USA received both the Environmental Excellence and Aesthetic Design Excellence Awards for their innovative new decking concept, Ipanema®, which utilizes 36 FSC-certified lesser-known species.
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