Why Naturally Renewing ‘Mass Timber’ is the Building Block of the Future

Across the globe, mass-timber sales reached just over $1 billion last year, according to Acumen Research and Consulting, a figure that’s set to treble by 2030. The need for innovation is clear: Building construction contributes 40 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, with cement alone responsible for nearly 10 percent of that tally.

Mass timber, meanwhile, is carbon sequestering — absorbing an estimated one ton of carbon for every three cubic feet in use, according to the University of Toronto’s Mass Timber Institute. Better still, unlike concrete — an eco-harming cement derivative — mass timber is naturally renewing when forested sensitively. Every few weeks, another timber architecture superlative seems to come out of the woodwork.