Timber products

There are many good reasons to use wood products. We have a few samples:

​	1.Wood is a renewable natural resource Wood is the only entirely renewable construction material. In Finland, wood is not an endangered natural resource,  as the Finnish forests produce more wood than is harvested.

​	2.Wood is used optimally  The wood products manufacturing process generates hardly any waste. Any residual parts of the product can be burned to produce energy or used as raw material in the chemical forest industry.

​	3.Wood products require little energy  Sawn timber production uses considerably less energy than the manufacture of other construction materials.

Concrete production, for example, requires twice as much energy, and brick manufacture four times as much.

​	4. The use of wood does not accelerate the greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is accelerated by an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activity. This results in global warming. ​

The carbon dioxide emissions released through the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) are considered to be the main causes of the greenhouse effect.
The use of wood-based energy does not contribute to the greenhouse effect, as the
growing trees bind the same amount of carbon as is released by their utilisation. Building with timber is one way of mitigating climate change. Part of the carbon contained in wood is bound in the end products, such as timber-built houses or wooden furniture, and remains in them during their entire life cycle.

​	5.Wood products rank high in life cycle comparisons  According to a number of life cycle comparisons, a timber-built house consumes less natural resources and causes less environmental impact than concrete-, brick- or steelbuilt houses. ​

The new timber building of the Finnish Forest Research Institute was completed in Joensuu, Eastern Finland.
In a survey on its environmental impacts, timber and concrete were compared as materials for the same building. It was discovered that the choice of wood as the construction material reduced the environmental load. The amount of non-renewable raw material used for the timber building was 1,480 tonnes, against 6,280 tonnes, i.e. four times the amount that would have been required for the
concrete building. Fossil carbon dioxide emissions came to 320,000 kg for the wooden building, as against 943,000 kg for concrete.

	6.Wood improves the quality of indoor air Wood has a so-called hygroscopic effect, which means that it is able to absorb humidity from indoor air and release it back into the air. ​

Wooden surfaces balance the humidity of indoor air and reduce peaks of humidity. This improves living comfort and the quality of indoor air.

​	7.Wood is re-usable Once wood products come to the end of their serviceable life, they can often be re-used as they are.  ​

The windows, doors and mouldings of old wooden houses, for example, are products that are in great demand at recycling centres today. Wood is also easy to repair and adapt to other end uses.

 

​	8.Wood is easy and safe to dispose of At the end of their life cycle, wood products can be disposed of without problems. Wood products can be disposed of by incineration or composting.​