Trees are the answer for a green environment
Plantation timber helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions, making it an environmentally responsible building material.
Concerns regarding greenhouse gas emissions are becoming an important consideration in the design and construction of most building projects. Plantation pine framing has excellent environmental credentials as it takes very little energy to manufacture and absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows.
Informed decisions about building materials and construction systems can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately the environmental impact of a home without adding to the cost of construction.
Trees are extremely effective at absorbing carbon dioxide during growth. They continuously remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via photosynthesis until a forest reaches maturity, after which the carbon remains locked in. Thus, forests act as a carbon sink even if individual trees are continually harvested and replanted.
Researchers have considered emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) and the length of time these gases linger in the environment. They have concluded that the global warming potential of a hypothetical steel framed home is 26 per cent higher and a concrete framed home 31 per cent higher than matching homes framed with timber.1
Another recent study also showed that the manufacture of steel for building required 384 times more fossil fuel energy per unit volume than the manufacture of timber, and 23 times more energy per unit mass.2
These findings have been backed up in a separate study conducted earlier this year by the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting. It found that the manufacture of a plantation pine frame for a standard 4-bedroom house generated 0.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with 2.7 tonnes to manufacture steel framing for the same house. The difference, 2.3 tonnes, equates roughly to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by an average car travelling 8000 kilometres2. A tonne of carbon dioxide would fill a family home.3
Australia's building industry is supplied with framing timber that is mostly derived from plantation forests. Australia has a considerable plantation estate covering more than 1.6 million hectares, and the area is growing rapidly. Approximately 61% of these plantations are pine. Close scrutiny of environmental certification and sustainability values will ensure that the Australian building industry will be able to access a sustained supply of its favourite building material for many years.
As nature's own structural material, timber has evolved to a high strength-to-weight ratio in order to support trees that grow as high as 100 metres. Timber is used to build a wide variety of structures including commercial and multi-storey buildings, warehouses and bridges, as well as housing.
Timber offers design flexibility and can be finished with a variety of coatings. This flexibility also extends to the ease with which the structure can be added to or modified.
Plantation timber is an environmentally responsible building material that offers reduced carbon emissions, design flexibility, effective insulation and recycling properties, and above all is extremely cost effective. The decision to use plantation timber in your next building project will have a long-lasting impact.
Construction of a steel frame home uses 17 per cent more energy than the matching timber framed home.1
"One of the best ways to address climate change is to use more wood, not less. Wood is simply the most abundant, biodegradable and renewable material on the planet."
- Dr Patrick Moore, founding member of Greenpeace
- Life Cycle Environmental Performance of Renewable Building Materials in the context of Residential Construction, Consortium Research, www.corrim.org/reports/
- Environmental Properties of Timber, Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation, 1996
- Global Warming: Cool It! A home guide to reducing energy costs and greenhouse gases, Australian Greenhouse Office, May 2003
|
