TDUK SupplyingTimber Issue 8 DIGITAL - Magazine - Page 69
the city generated 126 tonnes
of CO2 emissions. If it had
been made with concrete
the tally would have risen to
310 tonnes. If steel had been
used emissions would have
topped 498 tonnes. There is
the equivalent of 540 tonnes
of CO2 stored in the building's
wood, resulting in a long-term
subtraction of CO2 from the
atmosphere.
The Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research have
similar examples that they
deploy. They also make an
interesting observation with
regards to land use. Trees need
land to grow on and buildings
need land to be constructed on.
Per square metre, which can
potentially store more carbon,
a plot of forest or a plot of land
with a timber building?
The answer, according to
the Institute, is the latter: “A
昀椀ve-storey residential building
structured in laminated timber
can store up to 186kgC m2 in
the primary structure, that is
more than in the above-ground
biomass of the natural forest
with the highest carbon density
(52kgC m2, typical for the Coast
Range eco-region of North
America).”
Greensted Church in Essex,
England, has a nave constructed
from large split oak tree trunks
that have been dated to between
1063 and 1108 – that is over
1,000 years of carbon storage.
Westminster Hall, part of the
Palace of Westminster, has
an oak hammer-beam roof
commissioned in 1393 – over
600 years of carbon storage. If
the UK were to build 300,000
new homes per year with timber
frames, this could sequester the
annual carbon emissions of a
typical coal-昀椀red power station.
To sum up, we have two issues
at play and they are both
SUPPLYING TIMBER
69
equally important:
• Wood’s ability to continue
storing sequestered carbon
from the forest as timber in
the built environment;
• Wood’s ability to prevent the
carbon emissions which would
have happened if we had
used concrete and steel, brick
and block, instead of timber –
wood’s substitution impact.
As the researchers at the
Potsdam Institute have put
it: “By employing bio-based
materials, technologies and
construction assemblies with
high-carbon storage capacity
and low embodied emissions,
we can create a durable humanmade global carbon pool while
simultaneously reducing CO2
emissions associated with
building sector activities.”
↑
The ancient timbers
in the ceiling of
Westminster Hall;
© Thomas Erskine.
Timber!: How Wood Can Help Save the World
from Climate Breakdown by Paul Brannen is
published by Agenda Publishing
SPRING 2025
TIMBER KNOWLEDGE
———— THE "FOREST PUMP" ————
