Why choose wood as a sustainable building material?
There is increasing pressure on architects and builders from the public, commercial clients and national and local government to reduce the impact of building construction on the environment. One solution is to use more wood, the most environmentally friendly commercial building material available.
- Wood is naturally renewable, with a significant surplus of production over harvest in Northern Europe .
- Wood helps limit the growth of global warming, as growing trees absorb CO2 and produce the oxygen we breathe.
- Wood can be recycled and eventually burned for energy as a substitute for fossil fuels.
- Wood requires low energy inputs to harvest, transport and mill; data from the 'Centre for Alternative Technology' states that 2,000 Kw/Hrs of energy is used to produce 1 tonne of timber compared to 13,000 Kw/Hrs for a similar quantity of steel, or 45,000 Kw/Hrs for PVC and 25,000 Kw/Hrs for aluminium.
- Wood has a high strength-to-weight ratio; strength for strengh wood is considerably lighter than steel.
- Wood has low thermal conductivity; 400 times better than steel and 1,500 times better than aluminium.
