Preproduction of wooden buildings makes them a promising tool for carbon sequestration

摘要

Population growth sharply increases demand for readily available and affordable housing. As people spend a greater proportion of their lives indoors (chances of another pandemic increase with global warming), the energy necessary for construction materials, construction, maintenance, reconstruction, waste management and other services associated with housing becomes responsible for nearly half of the carbon released worldwide. There is a broad consensus that wood constructions could be an environmentally favorable instrument, as wood is the most reliable mechanism for carbon sequestration. Therefore, increasing the efficiency of wood constructions is a highly important matter. On-site and off-site construction was robustly assessed in terms of cost effectiveness. It is firstly demonstrated that off-site preproduction of components results in a range of benefits due to reduced labor (the main factor determining prices and time) and reduced use of materials and services. It is also demonstrated that component preproduction allows reducing the construction costs of wood houses by 6% and construction time by 20%. In other words, off-site preproduction of components for the construction of wood buildings improves their competitiveness and brings them closer to the very few profitable methods of carbon sequestration.