USFS report: Building with wood helps the environment

Confirming what researchers have been saying for years, a new U.S. Forest Service study finds wood should be a primary material in green building. Wood building products produce fewer greenhouse gases than other common materials, provide incentives for landowners to maintain forestland and are a critical source of jobs in rural America, the service said.

"Wood provides substantial environmental benefits and should be a major component of American building and energy design," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

"The argument that somehow non-wood construction materials are ultimately better for (reducing) carbon emissions than wood products is not supported by our research," said David Cleaves, a forest service climate change advisor. "Trees removed in an environmentally responsible way allow forests to continue to sequester carbon through new forest growth. Wood products continue to benefit the environment by storing carbon long after the building has been constructed."

The use of forest products in the United States supports more than 1 million direct jobs, particularly in rural areas, and contributes more than $100 billion to the country's gross domestic product, the report noted.

The report, entitled "Science Supporting the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Using Wood and Wood Products in Green Building Construction," identifies several areas where peer-reviewed science can contribute to sustainable green building design and decisions. Recommendations for increasing the use of more wood building products include:

• Updating information comparing environmental impacts across the life cycle of wood and alternative construction materials.
• Improving green building codes and standards to include adequate provisions to guide selection of wood building materials.
• Increasing educational, technology transfer and demonstration projects to improve acceptance of wood as a green building material.

Research recently initiated by the wood products industry, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory, will enable greater use and valuation of smaller-diameter trees and insect- and disease-killed trees, USFS said. Research on new products and technologies has been initiated.