Wood is a unique raw material and a tremendous source of energy. In an age with the global debate being focused on CO2 emission, it is important to remember that, during growth, trees will absorb and store large amounts of CO2. Stored in the tree’s xylem, the CO2 will not be released to the atmosphere before we burn the wood – or leave it to rot on the forest floor.
When we burn wood in a woodburning stove, there will thus be an emission of CO2. Yet, there is an exact match between the released amount of CO2 and the amount stored in the tree. For this reason, researchers consider wood to be a CO2 neutral source of energy. If, by burning wood for domestic heating purposes, we might even displace fossil energy sources such as oil or gas, we will thus end up with positive CO2 emission reductions through wood burning.
In the western world, wood is at the same time considered to be a sustainable source of energy. This is namely owing to the fact that, here, we have a continuous forest increment. On an annual basis, we will thus have considerably more trees than we cut down, and all these new trees will contribute to the absorption of yet larger amounts of CO2.
Likewise, it is a fact that by far the larger part of firewood is surplus wood from afforestation operations by way of large branches and wood resulting from thinning out processes – i.e. wood which cannot be used in the industry or for building materials.
Thus, it is by no means a matter of forest owners cutting down healthy trees to be chopped up for firewood.
When lighting a fire in your woodburning stove, it will emit CO2. But you will, however, contribute to the climate balance if your firewood stems from sustainably operated forests where, on an ongoing basis, there will be planted more trees than are cut down.
Security is standard
Morsø's woodburners meet some of the world's strictest environmental standards. This first and foremost applies to Standards Norway NS 3058/3059 which has severe requirements to the reduction of particle emissions. But to further underline our environmental focus, most of the Morsø woodburners have been further certified according to the swan label. Here, it is not just a matter of reducing the woodburner's environmental impact in use, as it is also about focusing on environment in the manufacturing and in the choice of packaging etc.
In addition, our woodburners are also tested for particles in USA, England and Germany. All our woodburners meet the European Standard, EN 13240, which, in plain language, means that the woodburners are CE labelled.