A visionary architect is building wood high-rises that can help cool the planet
We live in them. We work in them. And our planet’s getting warmer because of them.
The buildings we inhabit are major contributors to climate change—accounting for nearly 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s largely due to the energy used to heat and cool them, but a portion of buildings’ carbon contribution is generated at the construction stage. Producing (and then building with) materials like concrete and steel dumps 11 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
But Vancouver, Canada-based architect Michael Green has a vision for making buildings’ structures not only carbon-neutral, but also carbon sinks. It involves swapping concrete and steel for what he considers to be the ultimate green building material: wood…