Study Confirms Wood ls Good

Wood is the most environmentally responsible and energy efficient building material for home construction, according to a new study by the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials.

The independent study found that wood framing uses less overall energy than steel or concrete, has less impact on air quality, and results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming when compared to other construction materials.

"There is a significant consumer movement that is interested in green, or environmentally-conscious, construction methods," said Oregon State University professor James Wilson, vice president of the non-profit CORRIM. "We need to have a good understanding of the overall effects that different types of construction materials have in such areas as energy consumption, global warming, air and water impacts, and solid waste disposal."

The study included a life-cycle assessment of different construction materials and techniques. Evaluation included forest growth and harvest, product manufacturing, transportation, construction, use, maintenance and disposal in an effort to understand the overall effect of various building materials on the environment. Researchers also calculated emissions of carbon dioxide. methane and nitrous oxide to determine the potential of different construction materials to affect climate change.

Analyzed were four residential structures: a wood-frame and identical steel-frame house in Minneapolis, Mn., and a wood frame and an identical concrete-frame house in Atlanta, Ga., last year.

The study found that steel framing used lTVo more energy and contributed 26Vo more global warming potential than wood framing for a typical house built in a cold climate like Minneapolis. Steel construction also produced l47o more air pollution and tripled the level of water emissions of concern.

Concrete framing tsed l6Vo more energy and contributed 3l7o more global warming potential than the house built using wood construction in a warm climate like Atlanta. Concrete also increased air pollution by 23Vo and created 5l7o more solid waste than wood.

The research included the development of a database and modeling system for environmental performance measurements associated with various construction materials. The database will enable architects, builders, consumers and regulators to make consistent comparisons of the environmental performance of various construction materials.

The results of the research are expected to be popular resources for planners who are weighing the value of wood

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construction with regard to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. This system, a voluntary national standard for developing high-performance sustainable buildings, addresses the practices of reuse and recycling in the construction of buildings built with concrete and steel, but it noticeably omits the superior benefits of using wood.

"The implications of the findings in this report are farreaching," noted Mary Laschinger, v.p., International Paper's wood products business, Memphis, Tn. "Better material selection and construction design can help property owners reduce their energy demands significantly. Builders and designers who are educated about the virtues of wood will find they have a market advantage and can feel good about contributing to a healthier environment."

The CORRIM report suggests that there are many other opportunities for wood to have a positive effect on construction, including designing to use fewer fossil-fuel intensive products, changing building codes to reduce excessive use of construction materials, and recycling demolition wastes.

Thinning Urged To Prevent Wildfires

The key to stopping wildfires is to return to the forests of the past, according to a visiting scholar at the Forest Foundation in Auburn. Ca.

"Huge fires didn't happen in the past," said Dr. Thomas Bonnicksen. "We need to use our forest history as a guide to the future."

Bonnicksen, a professor of forest science at Texas A&M University, says yesterday's forests averaged 66 trees per acre. Today, the average forest has more than 450 trees per acre.

As a result, he said, "fires are getting bigger and more destructive" and cost more to control and fight. In California alone, it costs 2l times more to fight a forest fire than it did 20 years ago.

The solution, he said, is better management of the forest through partnerships between the public and private sectors. But the costs involved are huge, and federal money is hard to get.

More than 73 million acres across the country need restoration, at a taxpayer cost of $60 billion. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act is supposed to provide some federal funding, but many fire districts have not received any money yet.

Professor Bonnicksen said that the forest itself could subsidize the cost of restoration, through revenue from lumber, biomass and other wood byproducts. "Forests can be managed by the revenue generated from trees on the property," he said.

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