When we build tall with wood, we move the carbon-capture potential of our forests into our cities.

While wood has long been used as a construction material, the benefits of using wood as the primary material in the construction of certain types of buildings is increasingly being recognized world-wide as a more sustainable building option.

Because carbon stays stored in wood products like lumber, tall wood buildings continue to serve as a carbon sink long after the wood used in their construction has left the forest. And because mass timber construction can be completed 25% faster, building tall with wood can reduce carbon pollution during construction by up to 45%. Wood-frame construction also requires less energy to heat and cool long-term. When taken together, FPInnovations, one of the world’s largest forest research centres, estimates that the carbon benefits of a single 100,000-square-foot wooden building is equivalent to taking 1,400 cars off the road each year!

In urban areas, where housing demands continue to soar, building tall with wood has the potential to be transformative in expanding the construction of sustainable multi-family homes, not to mention office buildings, seniors’ residences, schools, bridges and recreation facilities. And because wood is the only building material that grows naturally, it stands as a sustainable, renewable option to build more resilient, lower-carbon communities.