Building in wood is bad for the environment. Fact or fiction?

Climate change and material scarcity, combined with housing shortages acutely calls for alternative materials that curb the environmental damage of the construction industry. Bio-based materials, and in particular the latest generation of mass timber products can play an essential role and contribute to making the construction industry climate-neutral and circular.
Two experts, Pablo van der Lugt (TU Delft) and Joke Dufourmont (AMS Institute) dive into the most persisting misconceptions that hamper the large-scale adoption of mass timber construction in this AMS Institute series of articles on ‘Timber construction: facts and fiction’, using examples, data and research results.

The reason for making this series is, among others, the Green Deal Wood Construction of the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA) with 32 municipalities, the province of Noord-Holland and Flevoland and the transport region Amsterdam. During the signing of the Green Deal Wood Construction, a book was published with the title ‘Wood construction myths debunked’.