Did you know that “every 10,000 ft3 of wood used in a nonresidential structure stores roughly the same amount of CO2 as taking 50 cars off the road in the U.S. for a year?” And did you know that the energy stored in the same amont of wood “is enough to light 100 average homes for more than 9 years?”
In a publication entitled, “Building with wood = Proactive climate protection,” Minneapolis-based Dovetail Partners, Inc., “highlights wood building products and their natural ability to store carbon.” The report also takes a comprehensive look at:
- the diverse benefits that forests and wood provide
- wood’s ability to proactively protect the climate
- the wood life cycle
- opportunities for utilizing wood in commercial scale buildings.
“The U.S. building stock is aging and over the next 10 years it is likely that more than 3 trillion dollars will be spent building, or substantially renovating nonresidential buildings in the U.S. How this building and renovation is carried out matters. Highly insulated modern designs, with generally prefabricated wood elements such as wall panels and trusses – which can be rapidly installed on site – represent an alternative and/or complement to standard concrete and steel nonresidential construction.”
Bottom line: “The ability of wood to store large quantities of carbon for long periods of time sets wood apart from, and provides a significant advantage over other building materials such as steel and concrete.”
Visit Dovetail Partners to download the complete report.
