Sustainable Wood Production - the new substitute for tropical wood? Terrace tiles made of tropical wood are beautiful and weather-resistant. But the wood is expensive, has to be transported around the world, and is often illegally felled. A company in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has developed a process by which domestic woods could replace imported tropical woods.
In 2009, the Dauerholz AG - whose name means "lasting wood" - went into production in the village of Dabel. So far, the company ships only to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. But it plans to have doubled its production by the end of this year. Report by Dan Hirschfeld.