Why Choose Timber?

The Ultimate Renewable Campaign by WoodSolutions has been nothing short than brilliant. To drive along the Eastern Freeway and see a Billboard with the message “Houses Grow On Trees” is a refreshing change from all the Green rubbish I’ve seen there over the years.

This inspired FTMA to create a new page on our website which we launched at the Geelong dinner titled titled ‘Why Choose Timber’ providing plenty of information for our members, builders, designers and consumers on the enormous benefits of timber that help create a greener future for all.

We want people to understand that whether they’re a family planning to build a new home or a professional working in large-scale development, they should consider the significant environmental and health benefits of building with responsibly sourced wood as part of the solution to climate change. The reason wood can play a big part in helping tackle climate change is because timber is one of the few natural, 100% renewable building materials.

Responsibly sourced wood is the only renewable building material available; it is naturally grown and removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Wood products then store the carbon that the growing trees have removed from the air (about 50% of the dry weight of wood is carbon).

The production and processing of wood uses much less energy – called embodied energy – than most other building materials, giving wood products a significantly lower carbon footprint. Wood can be used to substitute for materials that require larger amounts of fossil fuels to be produced.

Embodied carbon emissions in the construction sector account for over 23 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. The production and processing of timber uses much less energy than most other, more carbon intensive building materials such as steel and concrete. As a general rule, if we can replace a cubic metre of concrete with a cubic metre of timber, about a tonne (1000 kilograms) of CO₂ emissions will be avoided.