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Benefits of Using Wood Products

Wood is the only structural building material that is both renewable and sustainable. As a high-performance and cost-effective material, wood products build our world best.

Sustainable

Wood products are made from a renewable resource — trees — that are replanted to ensure a sustainable supply. Moreover, wood is less energy- and carbon-intensive to produce than competing materials like concrete and steel.

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Reliable and Innovative

Wood’s strength-to-weight ratio is comparatively higher than steel while containing a fraction of the embodied energy. Wood delivers durability and seismic resiliency necessary for tall buildings while offering code-compliant fire resistance…and innovations in design and engineering are continuously being implemented.

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Practical

Wood is a high-performance, cost-effective material that’s increasingly in-demand. And why not? Wood products help reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency, all while building so much of the world around us.

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What Is Wood?

Wood comes from trees and is used in a wide range of products and applications — some we easily recognize and even some we don’t.

What Kinds of Things are Made From Wood?

  • Lumber comes from trees that have been turned into planks or boards. Lumber is commonly used in structural materials, but is also used in cabinetry, furniture and flooring and pallets.
  • Engineered wood products are a combination of wood or wood byproducts and various adhesives to make different products, including plywood, particleboard, laminate flooring and structural composite lumber, just to name a few.
  • Structural composite lumber (SCL) products are engineered through layering wood veneers, strands or flakes and adhesives, which are then cut into specific sizes. They are used in building structures to make things like rafters, beams, joists and studs.
  • Panels can be both structural and non-structural. For example, plywood and oriented strand board can be used in construction applications, whereas particle board and medium-density fibreboard (MDF) are primarily used in non-structural products, like furniture or cabinetry.
  • Mass timber is a new and innovative style of wood construction that allows for the construction of buildings far taller than traditional light frame methods, most commonly associated with wood construction. Types of mass timber include cross-laminated timber (CLT), glued-laminated timber (glulam), nail-laminated timber (NLT) and dowel-laminated timber (DLT). Learn more about the benefits of building with mass timber.

Why Should I Use Wood?

Wood products are made from a renewable resource — trees — that are replanted to ensure a sustainable supply, and they are less energy- and carbon-intensive to manufacture than competing materials like concrete and steel.

Wood products also store carbon. Meaning, as a tree grows, it sequesters carbon and when the tree is turned into building materials or wood products, that carbon stays locked away in the finished materials for decades or centuries. Additionally, studies have shown that building with wood produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than building with other materials.

Through sustainable forest management, tree farmers harvest and replant trees responsibly, taking into consideration wildlife, diversity of plant species and forests’ abilities to create watersheds and sequester carbon.

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