• BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    9 months ago

    Mass timber is a good option for making them better forms of carbon sequestration but that's going to be a relatively minor contribution to the amount we'd need to draw down to stay in the atmosphere's good graces.

    • iridaniotter [she/her]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I wonder how much CO2 the world could sink in a few decades if the rest of the developing world went on a Chinese-style construction boom but with mass timber instead of concrete. 🤔

      • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        9 months ago

        Based on this life cycle assessment, a single 12-story, roughly 8,000 sq meter mass timber building would sequester nearly 2 tons of CO2, and per the Fed (ymmv), China's been producing roughly 50 MM sq m/month, which works out to ~139 kilotons/year.

          • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
            hexagon
            ·
            9 months ago

            Whoops, I misread. It's 1.84 kilotons per building, so 154 megatons per year, plus roughly the same in mitigated emissions. Exponents amirite ohnoes