Green Topics
Sustainability and Energy Efficient Wood
Wood is one of the world’s most sustainable building materials and completely renewable. Its growth helps reduce the impact of global warming and once it is harvested, carbon is retained in the wood itself, rather than being released into the environment.
Facts & Figures
Engineered wood products have a far smaller carbon footprint than metal and petroleum-based products. They consume far less energy during manufacturing, just four percent of the total energy used to manufacture all industrial raw materials.
For more insights, download APA’s Sustainable Buildings, Sustainable Future.
Compared to wood it takes:
0
x more energy
to produce ALUMINIUM
0
x more energy
to produce STEEL & GLASS
0
x the cost
to produce CEMENT
Wood is carbon neutral, with net carbon emissions are below zero
- Wood is a renewable, recyclable and biodegradable resource which can be made into a range of products that reduce waste by decreasing disposal costs and product damage.
- Derived entirely from solar energy, wood fibre resource is a keystone in reducing global warming. Forests mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, soil and biomass.
- The CO2absorbed by growing forests and stored in trees and wood products offsets the energy required to harvest, process, transport and maintain those products over time. And quality, durable products made from wood continue to store the carbon for generations to come.
- Young, growing trees absorb more carbon dioxide than older mature trees.
- For every ton of wood grown, a young forest produces 1.07 tons of oxygen and absorbs 1.47 tons of carbon dioxide. As the forest matures, growth slows and the absorption rate drops off.
- Harvesting a mature forest sequesters the carbon in the wood, so it is not released into the atmosphere.
- A 2,400-square-foot wood-frame house, for example, has 28.5 tons of carbon dioxide sequestered, roughly equivalent to seven years’ worth of emissions from a small, light-duty car.