Is Building with Wood Sustainable? Reflections on the Day of the Forest 2023

It is a fact that timber as a building material can make an important contribution to combating climate change as a CO₂ store – one cubic metre of wood used in construction stores around one tonne of CO₂. But does that mean that as much wood as possible should be used?

Definitely not, because: The raw material timber is only available in clearly calculable quantities and varies greatly from region to region. Therefore, wood cannot be the only building material. But it can certainly take on a much more important role than it has in the past.

And: Depending on the species and location, a tree experiences its greatest growth phase at the age of 15 to 30 years. During this phase, it binds up to 100 g of carbon dioxide per day. This means that for every old tree that is felled, new trees must be planted well in advance so that the CO₂-binding capacity of the felled tree is compensated for immediately (and not in a few decades).

Minimising the quantities used and reusing these quantities as much as possible thus also play an important role in timber construction.

More on constructing with timber