Wood is used throughout the world and has many characteristics that make it an inherently "green" building material.

Wood is a bio-based material and is entirely renewable. Trees extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the carbon is stored in the wood building products. Wood has low embodied energy compared to most other structural material. The energy consumed in managing forests, harvesting trees, milling timber and transporting lumber to job sites is relatively small. Wood fares exceptionally well when comparing the manufacturing impacts of building materials such as solid waste generation, air and water quality impacts, and greenhouse gas creation. Further, wood is both recyclable and reusable.

A structural engineer endeavoring to design responsibly with wood should consider the following sustainable initiatives:

• Specify wood products that come from sustainably managed forests. Responsible forest management is the key to preventing potential adverse environmental impacts associated with the harvesting of timber from forests.
• Specify wood species that are grown in the same region as the project.
• Utilize wood efficiently. Consider using prefabricated building components, engineered wood products and advanced framing techniques.
• Design durable structures that are resistant to deterioration, and can be altered and adapted to new uses and loading conditions. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the consumption of fossil fuels has been recognized as a cause of accelerated climate change. To effectively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on a sustainable basis, mature trees must be periodically harvested and milled into building products that will endure for many decades. This is referred to as "carbon sequestration" since carbon becomes a permanent and integral part of the building products. The key to effective carbon sequestration is building wood structures that will endure for many decades, even centuries.
• Specify non-toxic preservative treatments when appropriate or naturally occurring decay-resistant species such as Redwood, Cedar and Cypress.
• Require that construction site waste and demolition debris be sorted and recycled, or used as bio-fuel.

Portions reprinted with permission from STRUCTURE magazine, August 2009 issue (Article: Building Green with Wood Construction; Author: Jim DeStefano, PE, AIA)

Refer to the links provided below for more information on sustainable wood design: