Carbon & environment
Wood is not only a sustainable building material – it also acts as a natural carbon storage vault. As Australia’s building sector looks for ways to cut embodied carbon and create climate-positive designs, wood stands out. Using timber in construction can store carbon for decades while replacing more carbon-intensive materials like steel and concrete.
Whether you’re an architect, engineer, builder, or student — here’s what you need to know about how wood stores carbon, and why that’s good for your project and the planet.
How does wood store carbon?
The science of carbon sequestration
Trees absorb CO₂. Timber stores it.
Trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. This carbon is then stored in the wood for the life of the tree — and remains stored even after the tree is harvested and turned into timber products.
Approximately 50% of the dry weight of timber is carbon. When used in long-life applications such as buildings, this carbon stays out of the atmosphere for decades or even centuries.
Wood: The Ultimate Renewable ™
Historic wooden structures demonstrate the longevity of this carbon storage: Westminster Hall in London has timber beams that have kept carbon locked up since the 14th century, and some wooden temples have stored carbon for over 1,000 years.
The point is clear – using wood in long-lived applications (like buildings) keeps CO₂ locked away for decades or even centuries.
Timber vs other materials
Carbon footprint comparison
Compared to materials like concrete, aluminium, and steel, wood has a significantly lower embodied carbon footprint. Manufacturing timber products uses less energy, and because timber stores carbon, it offers a dual benefit:
- Avoided emissions from not using carbon-intensive materials
- Carbon sequestration through long-term storage in timber products
In fact, substituting 1 cubic metre of engineered wood for steel or concrete can avoid between 1 and 2.5 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, depending on the materials being replaced.
Timber as a long-term carbon store
Timber in buildings acts as a carbon sink. As of recent estimates, timber products in use in Australia are storing over 97 million tonnes of carbon — and that figure grows annually.
Timber buildings are effectively extensions of the forest, locking away carbon for decades while new trees grow and continue absorbing CO₂.
Even when disposed of in landfill, research shows that over 98% of the carbon in timber remains locked away due to slow decomposition in low-oxygen environments
Timber in the built environment
Building with wood offers multiple environmental benefits, especially in the context of climate change
Carbon sequestration in buildings: Every timber column, beam, or panel in a building is essentially a carbon storage unit. The carbon absorbed by the tree remains stored for as long as the wood is in use. Australia’s stock of wood products is already a massive carbon sink – the pool of carbon stored in wood products in service grows by about 3.5 million tonnes each year.
Using timber wall frames from just one hectare of pine plantation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 197 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent compared to using steel frames.
Common misconceptions
Timber from sustainably managed forests is part of a continuous cycle of growth, harvest, and regrowth. Using wood responsibly helps keep land forested and supports the industry that manages those forests.
Timber products store carbon for as long as they remain in use — and many buildings last 50+ years. Some structures in Europe have stored carbon for more than 700 years.
Engineered wood products such as glulam and CLT are highly durable, strong, and perform well in fire with proper design — all while reducing a building’s carbon footprint.
Combating embodied carbon in construction
The construction sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the materials used. Choosing timber can help reduce these emissions by:
- Storing carbon that would otherwise remain in the atmosphere
- Replacing more carbon-intensive materials like steel and concrete
- Supporting sustainable, renewable forestry systems
To estimate how much carbon could be saved by using timber in your next project, explore the WoodSolutions Carbon Calculator.
Choosing timber means choosing a renewable, carbon-storing, and low-emission material.
For Australian design and construction professionals looking to reduce the climate impact of the built environment, wood offers a proven path to lower embodied carbon — and supports the long-term sustainability of both forests and cities.