New Updated Carbon Calculator launched by WoodWorks

 Tuesday, November 22, 2016

WoodWorks, the Wood Products Council, has launched an updated version of its free carbon calculator, providing more options for buildings made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other mass timber products. Using wood products that store carbon instead of building materials that require fossil fuel energy to manufacture can help reduce greenhouse gases.

 
To calculate the carbon benefits of a wood building, users access the carbon calculator at the official WoodWorks website and enter nominal wood volume information. The calculator then estimates:

 
• How much time it takes U.S. and Canadian forests to grow that volume of wood
• The amount of carbon sequestered in the wood products, and
• Greenhouse gas emissions avoided by not using more fossil fuel-intensive materials.

 
It also uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator to equate the total carbon benefit to number of cars off the road and home operational energy.

 
Bill Parsons, Senior National Director of the Architectural & Engineering Solutions Team at WoodWorks, said: “The carbon calculator is a useful tool for building owners and designers who’d like to gain insight on the environmental value of alternate designs. It also provides information that allows them to express the carbon benefits of their wood building projects.”

 
The carbon calculator, which was already robust in terms of lumber, engineered wood products, decking, siding and roofing, was expanded to include new mass timber products available to North American building designers. Mass timber products such as CLT and nail-laminated timber (NLT) may now also be selected for use in a mass timber, light-frame/post and beam, or combination structural system.