[Greenbuilding] wood structures best for the environment

[Anne Judge]

On Oct 8, 2014, at 10:47 AM, John Salmen wrote:

> The basic premise is that wood sequesters CO2 – its easy to get – and if we don’t use it... it rots or burns down? 

That's not the way I read the Building News article - I took 

"Most of the savings in carbon would come from avoided emissions; some of the fossil-fuel savings would come from direct burning of scrap wood for energy. The impact of sequestering carbon in the wood itself—-whether in a building or in a forest—-is small by comparison" 

to mean that most of the CO2 reduction is due to the avoided steel- and concrete-production emissions.  Only a little is because the wood sequesters CO2.

Of course you'd have to read the whole journal article (which--I checked--is freely available) to be sure that's an accurate representation of the study's conclusions.  Feel free to find errors, just make sure you're arguing against what the article is actually saying, not what you think it's saying!

Anne