Eco-Friendly Construction: How Silviculture and Mass Timber Are Revolutionizing Sustainable Buildings

Although the production of mass timber involves cutting down trees, it is considered sustainable because of the practice of silviculture. Silviculture involves regularly planting trees for commercial purposes, ensuring a continuous supply of raw materials while promoting forest regeneration. By planting trees specifically for consumption, silviculture helps to maintain a balance between resource extraction and renewal.

(Photo : Pexels/Rudolf Jakkel )

Call for Sustainability in Construction

The United Nations Environment Programme stated that the buildings and construction industry was responsible for 37% of the world's electricity and process-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2021. This includes energy-associated emissions, which reached an all-time high of 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

As mentioned, the industry is far from the road developed through the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action Human Settlements and Resilience Pathway created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report advocated for the built environment to achieve a net-zero emission level for all new and current assets by 2050 and to cut emissions in half by 2030. By emphasizing sustainable materials, methods, and models, new research on Sustainable Buildings from Deloitte proposes a tripartite strategy for enhancing the sustainability of the engineering and construction (E&C) industry.

Moreover, manufacturing primary raw materials for traditional buildings, such as cement and steel, is responsible for around ten percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that occur on average worldwide. The Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), an international network of environmental non-governmental organizations, has published a new report indicating that the embodied carbon footprint of a structure can be reduced by 10% to 67% by employing timber structures sourced from sustainable forestry.

An additional advantage of structural timber in constructing columns and beams is its capacity to sequester carbon for decades if not centuries. This could coincide with the time required for new trees to mature. Since structural timber contains 50% carbon by mass, this could be responsible for a significant portion of the world's carbon emissions.

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Importance of Silviculture in Producing Mass Timber

Silviculture, another name for the forestry industry, is the practice of consistently planting trees, typically to put them to a particular commercial use. This natural occurrence first appeared in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century and has since spread across the world, resulting in the production of forests of varying ages, species, and functions. This approach's ultimate objective in gaining access to raw materials is to preserve the original, typically older and more complex biomes.

Accordingly, this can be accomplished by substituting non-renewable raw materials with renewable ones. In addition, through forest conversion for construction, we prevent the depletion of non-renewable resources such as stone and sediment. One of the most significant solutions for achieving ecological balance in planted forests is integrated management. The Brazilian government mandates that the original biome be preserved or restored in places where the forestry is planted. Thus, as long as pine trees exist, the Atlantic Forest will remain the related biome.

Related Article: Pros and Cons of Choosing Mass Timber on Your Construction