Environmental Facts and Green Building
Wood, and more specifically engineered wood, is a renewable building material and is a good choice for the environment, for green building, and for long-term life cycle performance. With intensified interest in environmental impact and green building, it's important to consider the attributes that make wood a good choice for the environment. It's also important to understand how engineered wood products can be used to meet the emerging standards and requirements for green building.
The manufacture of wood products requires substantially less energy than the production of other building products such as steel and concrete. Wood product manufacture results in fewer greenhouse gas and other air-polluting emissions. And wood design compares favorably on the solid waste scale. Its environmental attributes make wood the natural choice for sustainable design.
Learn more about the attributes of wood and get updates on green building programs and initiatives:
Related Information
CORRIM (Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials) fact sheets:
• Maximizing Forest Contributions to Carbon Mitigation, Fact sheet 5 (416 KB PDF)
• Product and Process Environmental Improvement Analysis for Buildings, Fact sheet 6 (166 KB PDF)
Wood and Green Building fact sheets produced by the Wood Promotion Network:
• LEED® vs. Green Globes™, Form WP G330 (778 KB PDF)
• Home Builder Guidelines, Form WP G335 (769 KB PDF)
• The Role of Life Cycle Assessment, Form WP G340 (901 KB PDF)
• Using Wood to Fight Climate Change, Form WP G345 (773 KB PDF)
Related Publication:
Wood: Sustainable Building Solutions, Form F305 (3 Mb)