"Our vision for sustainable forest management and governance could indeed improve the situation for forests worldwide as they are valued more." "Protecting forests from unsustainable logging and a wide range of other threats is thus key if timber use was to be substantially increased," co-author Christopher Reyer from PIK emphasizes.
"Protecting forests from unsustainable logging is key" Still, even in the 90 percent timber scenario the carbon accumulated in timber cities over thirty years would sum up to less than one tenth of the overall amount of carbon stored aboveground in forests worldwide. A five-story residential building structured in laminated timber can store up to 180 kilos of carbon per square meter, three times more than in the above ground biomass of natural forests with high carbon density. Importantly, to reach net zero emissions by mid-century, societies need some kind of CO 2 sinks to balance remaining hard-to-avoid emissions namely from agriculture.īuildings could be such a sink - if made from timber. This might seem not so much compared to the current amount of roughly 11000 million tons of carbon emissions per year, yet the shift to timber would make quite a difference for achieving the climate stabilization targets of the Paris agreement.Īssuming a continued building with concrete and steel and assuming an increase in the floor area per person, following past trends, the cumulative emissions from mineral-based construction materials might reach up to one fifth of the CO 2 emissions budget up to 2050 - a budget that should not be exceeded if we want to keep warming at well below 2☌ as promised by governments in the Paris agreement. In addition, constructing timber buildings reduces cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases from steel and cement manufacturing at least by half.
This could result in storing between 10 million tons of carbon per year in the lowest scenario and close to 700 million tons in the highest scenario. If countries with current low industrialization level also make the transition, even 90 percent timber is conceivable, the scientists say. This could be driven up to 10 percent or 50 percent, if mass timber manufacturing increases accordingly. Assuming business as usual, just 0.5 percent of new buildings are constructed with timber by 2050. Second, wood from demolished timber buildings is preserved on land in various forms."įour scenarios of timber use to help climate stabilizationįour scenarios have been computed by the scientists for the next thirty years. First, the harvested forests are sustainably managed. Our analysis reveals, that this potential can be realized under two conditions. "Yet, this risk for the global climate system could be transformed into a powerful means to mitigate climate change by substantially increasing the use of engineered timber for construction worldwide. The roof deck and People’s Garden is framed by the building structure which extends the expression of the tall wood structure into the skyline."Urbanization and population growth will create a vast demand for the construction of new housing and commercial buildings - hence the production of cement and steel will remain a major source of greenhouse gas emissions unless appropriately addressed," says the study's lead-author Galina Churkina who is affiliated to both the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in the US and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany (PIK). Apartment and office ceilings will feature exposed wood with circulation grouped around the exposed wood core.Ī daylit stair provides a glimpse of circulation and the wood structure from a distance.
This design features the building structure while bringing together the main entries into retail, housing, and office spaces. Laminated wood columns and a CLT ceiling frame this space and connect to a second floor community room and garden deck. The structural design is a glulam post-and-beam structure, surrounding a CLT central core, and topped by CLT floor panels and gypsum concrete.įramework’s mass opens to display the exposed vertical wood core and lifts at the street corner creating a double height daylit public space. The building design showcases the innovative nature of mass timber construction at both the street level and on the city skyline. Framework will be the 1st skyscraper made from wood in the United States.
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