Why use Timber as a Building Material?
Why Wood is Good!
Wood is the only building material on the planet which is naturally renewable, recyclable and leaves a lighter footprint than any other. In its production the embodied energy in wood is a fraction of the energy required to produce almost any other building material. Wood is carbon negative, as a result of “carbon sequestration”, or in other words “storage”. To grow a kilo of it takes 1.47 Kg of carbon dioxide on average and gives off 1.07 Kg of oxygen. So, using wood from sustainably managed forests minimises CO2 omissions. The thermal insulation properties of wood save energy and therefore save emissions throughout the life of a building.
Carbon Sequestration
•The best way to use forests as carbon sinks is to harvest the timber and convert it into products (which continue to store the carbon) while replanting more trees than before
• Growing trees absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and converts it into carbohydrates through photosynthesis, releasing the oxygen we breathe •The resulting carbon is locked away for the tree’s life and the life of the timber and paper products coming from the tree Sustainable Building with Wood
“Green Building” around the world is here to stay and wood provides solutions that contribute to a sustainable built environment. As architects, designers and their clients increasingly demand the use of sustainable materials, they seek a one-stop shop for sustainable wood products. APP Timber offers hardwoods from sustainable forests in
USA, Australia and Europe. These are either from natural forests managed under a framework of environmental legislation or from plantations, which is just one solution to sustainable forestry. Selective harvesting of trees allows natural regeneration of the most suitable species for any particular growing site and meanwhile preserves the habitat. European Forestry and Building
•The European timber industry has overseen a steady expansion of Europe’s forests over the past 60 years • Between 1990 and 2000 the European forest area has grown by 30%
•This growth continues, as only 65% of the annual growth is harvested, adding some
252 million cubic metres to the carbon sink annually (source: UN-ECE Temperate and
Boreal Forest Assessment, 2000) •The European wood product stock is estimated at 60m tonnes • Using 1m3 of wood instead of other materials results in to around 2 tonnes of
CO2 sequestration • A 10% increase in the share of timber houses built annually in
Europe would result in a significant reduction in CO2 emissions •Wood products achieve negative net CO2 emissions – lower than any other building material (source: Building
Information Foundation RTS, 2003) •They require very little non-renewable energy for their manufacture, as over 75% of energy for manufacturing comes from wood residues and recovered wood •The LCA (lifecycle) of wood products is highly advantageous
•Wood’s thermal efficiency means timber frame houses use less energy to heat in the
European climate.
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American Forestry
In the USA hardwood forest growth has been measured since 1953. The RPA 2000
Assessment shows that between 1953 and 2007, the volume of U.S. hardwood growing stock more than doubled from 5,210 million m3 to 11,326 million m3. U.S. Forest
Service forecasts indicate that further increases of 15 to 20 percent are expected in the hardwood growing stock inventory through 2030. Projections of hardwood growth and removals nationwide indicate that growth will continue to exceed removals through to
2050. The U.S. operates an effective and enforced regulatory framework to deliver sustainable forest management. All forest owners in the United States are subject to
Federal legislation to protect habitats for threatened species. Tough regulations governing other aspects of forest management on private