Green Building

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use energy, water and materials, as well as reducing impact on human health and the environment through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal. It encompasses the complete building cycle.

Weyerhaeuser supports the concept of green building. We support using a life-cycle assessment approach to determine the total environmental effect of specific building materials, from resource extraction to demolition and disposal.

The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials found that for a typical house, wood framing:

• used 17 percent less energy than steel construction
• used 16 percent less energy than concrete construction
• generated 26 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than steel and 31 percent less than concrete. It also generated fewer air pollutants.

Additionally, carbon stored in trees harvested from sustainably managed forests is captured in our products. Wood products store carbon during their useful life, limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Learn more about wood versus steel and concrete construction.