Wooden Houses as CO2 storage: Study propagates wood as a climate-friendly building material

Wooden houses as CO2 storage: Study propagates wood as a climate-friendly building material

Enormous amounts of energy are consumed in the production of cement. For this reason, the industry is estimated to be responsible for around eight percent of global CO2 emissions. In the meantime, work is being done on processes that will reduce the burden on the climate. However, these are still a long way from market maturity. An international team of researchers is therefore now propagating a completely different approach in a study: cement is to be partially replaced by a more sustainable building material - i.e. wood. In concrete terms, they calculated four scenarios in this context.

There would be a double savings effect

According to the researchers' calculations, this could save up to 700 million tonnes of emissions. There would also be a kind of double saving effect. On the one hand, less cement would be needed, which would reduce the corresponding emissions. On the other hand, the houses themselves also act as a kind of CO2 storage facility.

These three conditions must be met

Firstly, the raw material must come from sustainably managed forests. This would give higher value to forests - which could lead to better protection.  The second condition mentioned in the study is that when houses are demolished, the wood must be recycled and reused. And finally, the researchers point out that in the future much less wood may be used as fuel.