Wood: The Pluses, The Minuses, and The Neutrals

If you have read my last post regarding how we know that the wood we use is getting sourced from a reliable place and if the wood is the right material for us this post will help you make that decision. Wood is a wonderful material with thousands of uses and is overall seemingly sustainable for the environment. However, what are the specific advantages, disadvantages, and indifferent ideas about accessing wood in this world? 

Let's start this discussion with the advantages of using wood. The first thing about wood that most people know is how versatile it can be. You can use it for furniture, building, fuel, paper, and so many other things (lesson 13). It is also always evolving and there are always new things that you can do with wood. It can be modified to fit the needs of the consumer with products like plywood or fiberboard (lesson 15). This is very good because it can eliminate other products such as cement and steel. Another benefit of wood is its property called carbon neutrality. This simply means that the amount of carbon that the tree takes in during its life is the same amount of carbon that it emits when it is dead (lesson 17). This is useful because you can grow more trees to take in more carbon without needing to put it back into the atmosphere at the same time (lesson 17).  Trees also can manage ecosystems, provide diversity, and nurture the earth (Which Type of Forestry Carbon Offset is best). So technically speaking if we use more wood, we will plant more trees, and therefore have more benefits of trees,  but it's not that simple.


Using wood can’t be all good there have to be some disadvantages when it comes to this material. The first disadvantage that has the biggest impact on large-scale construction would be the economic value of wood. As you can see in the chart above the price of wood compared to the price of concrete is nearly 2.5 million dollars more expensive to use (Analysis of cost comparison and effects of Change orders during construction). Many large companies are not going to go with the wood option because that will lead to higher budgets and companies don’t want to spend more money. The construction with the use of timber is about 5.62% higher than the cost of concrete (Analysis of cost comparison and effects of Change orders during construction). Even though trees are considered carbon neutral, what about the process of making wood? This process is going to entail the use of fossil fuels that will release carbon into the atmosphere. So the idea of wood being carbon neutral is not correct. It still does produce less amounts of carbon than the other alternatives, but it is not a completely clean option either. 


The last thing that I want to mention is the idea of carbon sequestration. This idea of keeping carbon locked away in buildings and construction until it can be released back into the environment. This can be thought of as a good thing by many people and many people believe the way to fix our climate would be to plant more trees and use more wood for buildings. This is a good idea as the more trees we have the more carbon emissions are absorbed. However, there is no way to prevent the carbon going back into the atmosphere. It might be held off for a couple of hundred years, but it will still go into the environment. 


After all this do you feel better about using wood in our community more or have you started leaning towards the other side? Wood is a very good material and will always have amazing benefits, but do the disadvantages outweigh the good? This will be a debate for years and years to come, but in my opinion, wood is a good way to go. 




Works cited: 


Lesson 15, Engineered wood products, BBE 1002, UMN


Lesson 13, Forest to Lumber, BBE 1002, UMN


Lesson 17, Is Wood Good?, BBE 1002, UMN


Which Type of Forestry Carbon Offset is best

https://8billiontrees.com/carbon-offsets-credits/most-popular-types/forestry-carbon-offset-types/ 


Analysis of cost comparison and effects of change orders during construction

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352710220334896 


The Wonders of Wood Buildings

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/06/03/wonders-wood-buildings  


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