Carbon Credits for Mass Timber Construction

Abstract

Due to concern over climate change, there is an increasing desire to limit new carbon dioxide emissions and to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Specific efforts include taxing carbon emissions, capping carbon emissions and selling emissions allowances, and rewarding activities that avoid new carbon emissions or that capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a relatively new product that enables mass timber construction to replace traditional construction materials in mid-to-high-rise buildings. Wood materials offer substantial “carbon benefits” by storing carbon in the product and by avoiding the large amounts of new carbon emissions associated with the use of fossil carbon-intensive material options (e.g., concrete and steel). In this analysis, we propose that the carbon benefits of mass timber construction could be valued as a carbon offset, much in the same way that the carbon savings of building a wind farm or solar power plant are currently being marketed for avoiding fossil-fuel electricity generation, or how additional forest growth is being sold as carbon storage. Using a range of carbon prices, we calculate the potential carbon offset values of some mass timber construction projects located in the United States. The estimated total carbon benefit, including avoided emissions and carbon storage in wood materials from those mass timber construction projects, averaged 0.38 tCO₂e/m² of floor space, representing carbon values for projects ranging into the millions of dollars. Future trends in carbon prices will greatly affect the practical implications of any carbon offset program for mass timber construction.

Citation

Taylor, A.; Gu, H.; Nepal, P.; Bergman, R. 2023. Carbon Credits for Mass Timber Construction. BioProducts Business. 8(1). 12 p. https://doi.org/10.22382/bpb-2023-001.