Wood is energy-efficient.

Buildings contribute to roughly 40%-50% of North America’s carbon emissions, and nearly all of that is due to energy consumption. Energy efficiency is one of the cornerstones of green building. Wood outperforms other materials and helps to minimize energy consumption in a number of ways.

In terms of the amount of energy used to create a material or product—embodied energy—wood beats steel and concrete. It takes significantly less energy to process, manufacture and transport wood, not to mention it’s completely renewable and recyclable.

Wood’s insulating properties also excel. Due to its cellular structure and lots of tiny air pockets, wood is 400 times more effective than steel and eight times better than concrete in resisting the flow of heat.  As a result, more insulation is needed for steel and concrete to achieve the same thermal performance as with wood framing.

Did you know?
Wood is a great insulator. Eight times better than concrete. Four hundred times better than steel.