Would you believe how much wood can save in environmental damaging emissions? A Finnish research report claims buildings around us create one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions –about ten times more than air traffic worldwide. In Europe alone, about 190 million-sq.meters of housing space are built each year, mainly in the cities, and the amount is growing at nearly 1% a year.

A recent study by researchers at Aalto University and the Finnish Environment Institute shows that shifting to wood as a building material would significantly reduce the environmental impact of construction. The results: if 80% of new residential buildings in Europe were made of wood, and wood was used in the structures, cladding, surfaces, and furnishings of houses, the buildings would store 55 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to about 47% of the annual emissions of Europe’s cement industry.

The manufacture of building products causes about a tenth of global carbon dioxide emissions, with more than 90% of these emissions associated with the production of steel and cement. Cement is the key ingredient of concrete – and concrete is the world’s most used construction material. The suburban building boom of the 1960s made it the norm in Finland, too. A manufacturer of concrete modules and builders to erect them can be found in every city.

The carbon footprint of constructing a concrete multi-story building is 75% higher than that of a wooden structure. Now, the Finnish government, which has made a commitment to meet demanding climate objectives, wants to double the volume of wood construction over the next four years.

The report, based on 50 case studies, had the researchers divide buildings into three groups according to how much wood they use – therefore, how much carbon dioxide they store. The group with the least amount of wood stored 100 kg of carbon dioxide per square meter, the middle group stored 200 kg, and the group with the greatest amount of wood stored 300 kg per square meter (CO₂ kg m²). The potential carbon storage capacity was not generally related to building or wood type, or even its size; rather, capacity is based on the number pieces and volume of wood used as building components, from beams and columns to walls and finishing pieces.

The researchers also looked at how Europe could achieve a tremendous cut by modelling a path for reaching the level of 55 million tons per year by 2040. If in 2020, 10% of new residential buildings were made of wood each storing 100 CO₂ kg m², the share of wood-built buildings would need to grow steadily to 80 percent by 2040. At the same time the scenario demands a shift to wooden buildings that store even more carbon dioxide, with more buildings falling into the 200 CO₂ kg m²-storage group, and eventually the 300 CO₂ kg m²-storage group.

Of course, Finnish home-builders love timber: some 90% of single-family homes are built from wood. Wood accounts for about a fifth of public buildings like schools and daycare centers, but for only 5% of multi-story buildings.

Energy efficiency is the most frequently used parameter for measuring the environmental impact of buildings. However, energy efficiency requires more insulation, efficient recovery of heat, and better windows. In fact, about half of the carbon footprint of zero-energy houses occurs before anyone has even lived in them. When the energy used in housing comes increasingly from renewable sources, the significance of the construction phase of the building’s total environmental impact grows even more.

According to the researchers, wood construction is sustainable only if the wood comes from forests that are grown in a sustainable manner. Shifting from short-lived products, like paper, to products with a long lifecycle, like wooden construction materials, would help minimize the impact on European forests and the crucial carbon sinks they hold.

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