American cherry is a positive environmental choice, being a highly desirable timber which is readily available in the U.S. forest but which has been under-utilised in recent years. U.S. Government forest inventory data shows that American cherry growing stock is 404 million m3, 2.7% of total U.S. hardwood growing stock. American cherry is growing 11.7 million m3 per year while the harvest is 4.3 million m3 per year. After harvesting, an additional 7.4 million m3 of cherry accumulates in U.S. forests every year. American cherry growth exceeds harvest in all States. It takes just over a second for new growth in the U.S. forest to replace the cherry harvested to manufacture each stool.
The small amount of plywood used to create the jig for the stool had a relatively minor effect across all environmental impact categories. For this analysis, the full impact of the plywood was allocated to the first stool. However, if the stool were produced commercially, the plywood jig would be reused and this impact would be allocated among multiple products.