What Is the Impact of Mass Timber Utilization on Climate and Forests?

Rachel Pasternack, Mark Wishnie, Caitlin Clarke, Yangyang Wang, Ethan Belair, Steve Marshall, Hongmei Gu, Prakash Nepal, Franz Dolezal, Guy Lomax, Craig Johnston, Gabriel Felmer, Rodrigo Morales-Vera, Maureen Puettmann and Robyn Van den Huevel
Additional contact information
Rachel Pasternack: The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203, USA
Mark Wishnie: BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group, 1180 Peachtree Street NE Suite #1810, Atlanta, GA 30309, USA
Caitlin Clarke: The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203, USA
Yangyang Wang: The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203, USA
Ethan Belair: The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203, USA
Steve Marshall: Mass Timber Strategy, LLC, Washington, DC 20016, USA
Hongmei Gu: USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53726, USA
Prakash Nepal: USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53726, USA
Franz Dolezal: IBO—Austrian Institute for Building and Ecology, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Guy Lomax: Global Systems Institute, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PY, UK
Craig Johnston: Independent Researcher, Ottawa, ON K2G 0V1, Canada
Gabriel Felmer: Instituto de la Vivienda, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8331051, Chile
Rodrigo Morales-Vera: Centro de Biotecnología de Los Recursos Naturales (CENBIO), Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca 3480112, Chile
Maureen Puettmann: CORRIM—Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials, Corvallis, OR 97339, USA
Robyn Van den Huevel: Dalberg Catalyst, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-8

Abstract: As the need to address climate change grows more urgent, policymakers, businesses, and others are seeking innovative approaches to remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. Forests can play a role in reducing atmospheric carbon. However, there is disagreement over whether forests are most effective in reducing carbon emissions when left alone versus managed for sustainable harvesting and wood product production. Cross-laminated timber is at the forefront of the mass timber movement, which is enabling designers, engineers, and other stakeholders to build taller wood buildings. Several recent studies have shown that substituting mass timber for steel and concrete in mid-rise buildings can reduce the emissions associated with manufacturing, transporting, and installing building materials by 13%-26.5%. However, the prospect of increased utilization of wood products as a climate solution also raises questions about the impact of increased demand for wood on forest carbon stocks, on forest condition, and on the provision of the many other critical social and environmental benefits that healthy forests can provide. A holistic assessment of the total climate impact of forest product demand across product substitution, carbon storage in materials, current and future forest carbon stock, and forest area and condition is challenging, but it is important to understand the impact of increased mass timber utilization on forests and climate, and therefore also on which safeguards might be necessary to ensure positive outcomes. To thus assess the potential impacts, both positive and negative, of greater mass timber utilization on forests ecosystems and emissions associated with the built environment, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) initiated a global mass timber impact assessment (GMTIA), a five-part, highly collaborative research program focused on understanding the potential benefits and risks of increased demand for mass timber products on forests and identifying appropriate safeguards to ensure positive outcomes.

Keywords: mass timber; carbon storage; lifecycle analysis; regional demand assessments; global trade modelling; climate change; forest impact assessments; sustainable forest management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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