Mass Timber: A Sustainable Building Solution

Jackson Morrill
American Wood Council

Industrial Revolution
Every home that is built is a representation of compromises made between different and often competing goals: comfort, convenience, durability, energy consumption, maintenance, construction costs, appearance, strength, community acceptance, and resale value. Consumers and developers tend to make tradeoffs among these goals with incomplete information which increases risks and slows the process of innovation in the housing industry. The slowing of innovation, in turn, negatively affects productivity, quality, performance, and value. This department features a few promising improvements to the U.S. housing stock, illustrating how advancements in housing technologies can play a vital role in transforming the industry in important ways.

Architects, designers, and developers are exploring designs using new products like cross-laminated and glued-laminated timber. These new mass timber products provide a significantly lower carbon footprint and store carbon in the building for its lifetime. The advent of new building code provisions allowing for the use of mass timber products to construct larger structures that go up faster than those made with alternative materials like concrete and steel can help address the affordable housing crisis more quickly and in a sustainable manner.