ZEROCARBONFUND

We love wood

With 40% of CO2 emissions, the building sector is one of the world’s largest polluters (source: UN). And it’s not just the operating energy it takes to run buildings (i.e. light, heat, and electricity), which garners a lot of attention. Embodied energy plays a role, too. Embodied energy is the energy it takes to produce building materials. Traditional materials like steel use a tremendous amount of embodied energy, and concrete is even worse. The cement industry actually emits 8% of all human-produced CO2. Embodied energy levels are often far lower for alternative building materials like wood. They required less CO2 to produce, which makes them better for the environment. In fact, bio-based materials actually absorb CO2 during the production process.

CO2 is stored in wood, so by incorporating wood into buildings, we can create long-term CO2 storage. When trees are incorporated into buildings, it creates space to plant new trees, and young trees are the biggest CO2 absorbers. That means wood-based building chains offer benefits on multiple levels. It’s high time to boost this cycle, and that requires both public and private partners.

Momentum

Now is the time to seize this opportunity, because the Netherlands is facing a huge construction challenge. A whopping one million houses need to be built in the next 10 years. If we can meet that demand using large-scale timber construction, we can kill two birds with one stone.

Governments and businesses have committed to the Paris Climate Agreement, so everyone is working towards the same goal: closing the CO2 cycle. It’s time to connect those stakeholders and turn our common goal into reality with real-world projects. BLOC is committed to that effort, bringing together investors, governments, businesses, forest managers, tree planters, construction firms, and wood processing companies around strong project propositions.

Pilot: The Dutch Mountains