Carbon storage and renewable materials: the trade-offs of the timber resource

Timber is currently a trending topic in the debate concerning our built environment carbon neutrality, due to its renewable nature and the potential to store carbon. Nevertheless, this premise is sometimes inaccurately interpreted, as the recently emerging concept of buildings being carbon sinks proves. The essay explores three fields in which misconceptions appear be grounded: the inaccurate use of vocabulary about carbon storage in timber, the renewable-based assumption disregarding forests’ finite nature and carbon transfer patterns, the competing market sectors relying on a resource with uncertain availability. By identifying existing and future trade-offs, the contribution points out how urban areas’ carbon neutrality cannot disregard the territory they extract resources from.