Wood Products Have Climate Attributes

Wood products have a lower embodied carbon compared to many other building materials. Responsibly sourced wood products provide additional climate benefits by sequestering atmospheric carbon during tree growth. 

The stored carbon in wood products, coupled with sustainable forest management preventing landscape carbon depletion, and appropriate end-of-life management such as long-term carbon storage in landfills, all contribute to wood products potentially having a positive impact on the climate.

• “Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The absorbed carbon dioxide is converted to sugars through the process of photosynthesis, with the carbon-containing sugars becoming cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, the building blocks used to create new cells and new compounds that collectively make up wood; one-half the dry weight of wood is carbon. The ‘waste’ product of photosynthesis is life-giving oxygen.

  When wood is used for building materials, there is an extended opportunity for carbon storage. In effect, a new “carbon pool” is created. For example, a carbon pool is created by framing a home with wood where carbon will be stored for as long as that home lasts. An average new single-family home contains about 15,800 board feet of lumber and 10,900 square feet of wood panels, a quantity of wood that incorporates about 9.3 tons of carbon (4). The carbon dioxide equivalent is over 34 tons. A massive quantity of carbon is stored within over 72 million such homes in the United States and Canada, a similar number of townhouses and multiple occupant residences, and a growing number of non-residential structures.”

  Reference: Carbon in Wood Products – The Basics (2013), Dovetail Partners, Inc. Page 1. Full Report

   

• “Young forests grow quickly. They are very efficient at sequestering carbon—removing carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon sequestered is stored in tree biomass (wood, roots, leaves) as well as in dead wood and soil organic matter."

  As trees age, their growth slows. Some trees die from various stressors like competition or disease. As trees die, they decay and decompose. This process transfers carbon and nutrients into forest soils and slowly emits carbon back into the atmosphere. Mature forests store a lot of carbon but sequester it much more slowly than younger forests.”

  Reference: The State of Canada’s Forests Annual Report (2023), Government of Canada.  Page 13. Full Report

   

• “Wood products are responsible for lower air and water pollution and have less embodied carbon than other commonly used building materials.”

  Reference:  Article: Wood and the circular economy | Resources | naturally:wood

   

• “Companies that source sustainably reduces their impact on the environment and ensure long term availability of the forest by promoting the biodiversity and health of the forest.”

  Reference: Wood sourcing policy guide | FSC Connect

   

• “The wood product value chain (from the forest to the end of the product’s life) contributes to the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, because CO2 removed by trees is stored as carbon in products in use and in well-managed landfills.”

  Reference: Cover--I+IV final, Page 22

   

• “Carbon uptake by forests reduces the rate at which carbon accumulates in the atmosphere and thus reduces the rate at which climate change occurs.”

  Reference: Forests: A stabilizing force for the climate - Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM)

   

• “In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.”

  Reference: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - AR4 WGIII Chapter 9: Forestry