Sustainable Design

Harmony Hills Cancer Retreat, WA, U.S.

Wood has many sustainable attributes and an obvious choice for green building. It grows naturally, using energy from the sun, and is the only major building material that’s renewable and sustainable over the long term. It also outperforms steel and concrete when compared using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. LCA is an internationally recognized approach to evaluating materials, assemblies and even whole structures, over the course of their entire lives, based on measurable indicators of environmental impact. Using this method, study after study has shown that wood is better for the environment than steel or concrete in terms of:

  • Global warming potential
  • Resource use
  • Embodied energy
  • Air pollution
  • Water pollution

Wood also contributes to a building’s energy efficiency and has a lower environmental footprint than other materials.

Sustainable forestry and certification

Forest certification is a tool that allows timber suppliers to prove the sustainability of their practices by inviting third-party organizations to evaluate forest management through environmental, economic and social values. 

Chain of Custody (CoC) certification documents material through each processing or manufacturing state until the resulting product reaches the store shelf or the end-user. This enables manufacturers, fabricators, distributors and retailers to prove their products are sourced responsibly and produced to sustainable standards.

U.S. WoodWorks Carbon CalculatorA tool that helps quantify the benefits of using wood in non-residential buildings including carbon stored in the wood and avoided greenhouse gas emissions.
Materials Matter CEU (Part 1 of 3) This CEU explores the environmental footprint of wood, concrete, and steel in building construction.
Materials in Action CEU (Part 2 of 3)This CEU addresses the differences between wood, steel, and concrete in terms of basic material properties as well as their performance during the building operations phase. Also discussed will be end of life issues, including the impacts of recycling versus reuse.
A Natural Choice CEU (Part 3 of 3) This CEU is the third of a three-part series. It documents accepted definitions of sustainability, discusses ways in which wood contributes to sustainable design, explains the trends behind the increased use of wood as an environmentally sound building material and evaluates the impact of building rating systems and codes on environmentally sound design.
Athena Sustainable Materials Institute Help for architects, engineers and others to evaluate the environmental impacts of new and existing buildings through life cycle assessment (LCA).
The Environmental Performance of Renewable Building Materials in the Context of Residential Construction A report on the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of alternative building materials from forest resource regeneration or mineral extraction through product manufacturing, the assembly of products in constructing a residential home, occupancy and home repairs, and the eventual disposal or recycle.