THE ROLE OF ENGINEERED WOOD IN SUSTAINABLE STRUCTURES

THE INCREASING THREAT of climate change has more and more building owners and homebuyers considering the sustainability of their structures and the role construction plays in global warming and use of our natural resources.

What makes a sustainable structure?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, green building is the practice of maximizing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use resources—energy, water and materials—while minimizing impacts on human health and the environment through the complete building lifecycle, from siting, design and construction, to operation, renovation and reuse.

Green building programs and codes first emerged in the 1980s, and as they have evolved, so have their targets. As global warming intensifies, an increased emphasis has been placed on reducing carbon emissions.

Architecture 2030 notes that the building and construction sectors account for nearly 50% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions—which are responsible for global warming and climate change. The current building energy code only addresses operational energy but not the impacts of embodied energy/carbon in building materials.

How do we compare building materials?

Embodied carbon, or materials carbon, refers to emissions related to construction and building materials. These embodied emissions encompass all greenhouse gas emissions that arise from the extraction, manufacture, transport, installation, maintenance and disposal of building materials.

Reducing the embodied carbon in buildings requires understanding the carbon footprint of the materials that go into them. Carbon accounting is the process of calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions associated with the building materials—how much carbon is sequestered into materials (the process of capturing, securing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) versus how much greenhouse gases are emitted during extraction, manufacturing, construction and eventual demolition and disposal, as well as emissions during habitation.

If sequestration and emissions are equally balanced, the project is carbon neutral or even carbon negative. Carbon neutrality can be accomplished in several ways,

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“Growing beyond measure.”