Cut trees. Save forests.
The naked truth about building with wood.
When it comes to a sustainable built environment, material choices matter. Wood is a natural, renewable, and sustainable material for building, with a lighter carbon footprint than steel or concrete. Maximizing wood use in both residential and commercial construction could remove an estimated 21 million tons of C02 from the atmosphere annually – equal to taking 4.4 million cars off the road.
North America has more certified forests than anywhere else in the world. Modern forestry standards ensure a continuous cycle of growing, harvesting and replanting.
Strong markets for wood products encourage forest owners to keep their lands as forests and invest in practices to keep trees healthy. Forest management in the U.S. and Canada operates under federal, state, provincial and local regulations to protect water quality, wildlife habitat, soil and other natural resources. In the U.S., more forest land is lost to development, than forestry.
Build Green, Designing a Sustainable Future with Wood
Wood performs better than concrete and steel when it comes to air and water pollution. Wood’s advantages are recognized by green building rating systems— including certified wood, recycled/reused materials, local sourcing of materials, waste minimization, indoor air quality and life cycle impacts.
Treehouse vs. greenhouse.
Wood stores carbon and, with the least embodied energy of all major building materials, it requires less energy from harvest to transport, manufacturing, installation, maintenance and disposal or recycling. Harvesting and replanting increases forests’ carbon sink potential as the rate of sequestration is greater during young, vigorous growth. Active forest management, or forest thinning, mitigates wildfires, cuts carbon emissions, replenishes area waterways, expands wildlife habitat, and creates jobs in rural areas.
Credit: Image excerpted from Decarbonizing Construction presentation, courtesy Gray Organschi Architecture
For more checkout Think Wood