Lumber and CO2

I just met a married couple who recently retired from a lumber business they ran for 30 years in Southern California.  When I asked about any trends they see in the industry vis-a-vis environmental sustainability, they had plenty to say, perhaps the most interesting is the use of steel in building construction as a replacement for wood.  This is largely driven by concern for mold on/in wood of all types: lumber and engineered wood products, e.g., OSB (see pic above).

From an environmental perspective, this is unfortunate, as wood is largely sustainable.  If you don’t plant trees to replace those you cut down, there soon won’t be any left.  And building products sequester the CO2 they absorbed throughout they lives for many decades, even centuries. Compare this with the lifecycle of most plants, which decompose or burn in fires, re-releasing their stored CO2 very quickly.

The manufacturing of steel, by contrast, emits huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.