Dive Brief:

• A study by forestry researchers at Yale University and the University of Washington concluded that the global environment could benefit if we built more with wood and less with concrete and steel.
• Reducing steel and concrete manufacturing could eliminate between 14% and 31% of global carbon dioxide emissions, the scientists said in their findings, though it's not clear what percentage of replacement with wood that assumes.
• The scientists say that upping the annual harvest of wood from the current 20% to 34% of annual growth would provide the needed wood for building and could reduce fossil fuel consumption because scrap and unsalable wood could be used for cooking fuel instead of wood now taken directly from forests.

Dive Insight:

The study provides an interesting idea. How much steel and concrete could be replaced by wood and still meet codes and produce buildings that markets want would have to be explored. Producing concrete, steel and brick and transporting them accounts for an estimated 20% to 30% of global fossil fuel consumption.