When sourced from sustainably managed, climate-smart forests, biobased buildings can be hugely instrumental in combating climate change, driving investment back into forests while simultaneously creating a carbon sink in the built environment. There are five reasons why sustainable timber must become one of Earth’s core building materials, these are:

Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere and much of that carbon remains stored within the tree’s woody biomass even once they’re cut down and processed into wood and used for anything from the frame of a building to a door or kitchen unit. Once that wood reaches the end of its natural use, providing it’s recycled into another long-life product – a timber facade is turned into bio-insulation, for example – that carbon remains stored within the structure it has morphed into.

So, while traditional buildings made from concrete and steel are expected to produce around 2,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, an equivalent timber building can match this in carbon storage.

And, not only does timber construction benefit the environment by helping to cut down carbon emissions by substituting for carbon-intensive materials, it can also create demand for wood from sustainable well-managed forests, thereby paying for management that reduces the likelihood of forest fires and providing habitat for wildlife.

Keep reading on weforum.org