The Great New Green Building Material Is…

Wood?By Jake Glavis

• A recent article on The Conversation has made the argument that of all the major building materials - concrete, brick, aluminum, steel - wood is by far the most green. The article’s author, Chad Oliver is the Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Director of Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at Yale University, admits that his conclusion may be counter-intuitive, but insists the evidence is there.

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• The modern building materials that we employ each year are energy intensive to produce and account for 16% of the fuel production for the entire planet. Wood is renewable and only requires a portion of the world’s forestry resources.

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• Oliver cites his research published in the Journal of Sustainable Forestry. They estimate that the world’s forest contain 385 billion cubic meters of wood with an additional 17 billion cubic meters growing every year. Oliver argues that with a 3.4 billion cubic meters harvested each year, mostly for fuel, that other building products for wood would make for renewable building that would not harm biodiversity if done correctly.

• Oliver and his team of researchers have evaluated scenarios in which wood is burned for energy, used for construction, or forests are left untouched. What they found was that the wood harvested each year accounts for only 20% of new annual growth. Increasing the wood harvest by 14% and creating less concrete and steel would reduce global CO2 by 14-31% and an annual of 12-19% of fossil fuel consumption would be saved.

• Harvesting forests for wood production only temporarily disrupts a forest ecosystem, and would ultimately serve to preserve the forest as a precious natural resource. Placing emphasis on wood for construction would help to preserve forests and end the practice of clear cutting and converting the area to farmland. Oliver notes that new styles of building construction, such as cross-laminated tinder, have overcome some of the barriers of working with wood, making it a viable and green alternative to traditional modern materials.

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• To read the original article, head over to The Conversation.