We welcome the movement of our industry towards being responsible to our planet and are proud of the steps that we are taking every day. Before ‘Green’ became a buzzword, Doopoco Enterprises was taking initiatives towards being ‘Green’ and providing cabinetry that was fabricated and finished using non-toxic, environmentally safe components. My family has been in the lumber and building materials business since 1881. I grew up around conversations about managing forests for the future. I understood at an early age that lumber could be replenished by re-planting trees and limiting logging. My father sat on the board of the National Lumber and Builder’s Association and promoted responsible lumber management practices. These early impressions have provided a foundation for awareness that have inspired me to take steps to be a steward for the protection of our fragile eco system.

For architects and builders that are seeking Leed Certification credits for green building projects, we are ready and eager to help you achieve your credits. We continue to educate ourselves on the development and availability of compliant and sustainable materials and components for our cabinetry. We have copies of data sheets to provide to you for your credits. Please read what follows to learn some of the measures that we take on a daily basis towards participating in the green movement.

Below are some of the steps that Doopoco Enterprises is taking towards being ‘Green’, protecting our environment and the indoor air quality of our client’s homes:

The California Air Resources Board or CARB has taken aggressive steps to require our industry to eliminate the use of products that are fabricated using formaldehyde. This action has done much to start a wave of innovation among the manufacturers of panel products to come up with alternatives for the use of formaldehyde. In recent months most of the panel manufacturers have been making announcements about the steps they are taking to comply with the new standards which include:

• Using recycled wood waste in the fabrication of the panels
• Eliminating the use of formaldehyde glue
• Certifications of forest stewardship
• Using woods that are from certified ‘managed forests’

• We have been using panels from Columbia Wood Products – PureBond since shortly after they announced the availability of their formaldehyde free panels at the industry trade shows in 2005.

• While not all hardwoods are available to us from managed forests and FSC certified, we do have access to some which include bamboo wood products, Lyptus, maple, alder and German beech.

• All of our glues, including any contact adhesives that we use, are water-based.

• We made the transition to water-base finishes back in 2005. This includes all of the stains, sealers and top coats that we use. These finishes are non-toxic, non-flammable and are actually more durable than lacquer based finishes. We made this transition back before there was much support in the industry or with the local finishers that we used, so we took over the finishing of our cabinetry. Now the industry is embracing this transition especially here in California. As a result there are many more product options available to us and we are always looking at the latest innovations for the best finishing solutions. We use turbine-power HVLP spray equipment that minimizes waste and over-spray during the process of finishing.

Our CNC router, which is used for panel processing, allows the implementation of ‘nested-based processing’. This effectively reduces waste when cutting parts out of the panels. Any useful off-cuts are recycled back into our inventory for later use.

• When choosing vendors for our supplies has much as possible we will choose local vendors that have local sources for their products.

• Whenever possible we encourage the use of the internet and the telephone in place of site meetings when working with our clients while creating designs and working out details.
Our staff carpools to work.

• We recently participated in a program sponsored by Southern California Edison where they replaced all of our fluorescent light fixtures and bulbs with energy efficient fixtures and bulbs that will save 37% on our electricity consumption in the shop.

These are some of the actions we are currently taking to play our little part in being responsible to our planet and each other. We welcome the rapid change in our industry to embrace this effort and look forward to future opportunities to contribute.