Modern towns and cities are often described as monuments to extraction and emissions, built from materials that require intensive use of fossil energy for their production. A vision for greener cities proposes replacing these structures with wood.
Norwegian developer Arthur Buchardt began exploring the environmental importance of construction around 2015, following the Paris climate agreement. He consulted an architect to determine the potential scale for high-rise wooden buildings.
The construction of a typical mid-rise building using steel and concrete generates an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, the same building made from wood sequesters between 600 and 1,000 metric tonnes of CO2. This figure does not include the additional carbon absorption from the planting and regrowth of harvested trees.