The potential for growth and opportunities in the green building products sector will be addressed at this year’s Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) annual conference in New Zealand.
The event in Auckland on June 16-17 is called “Green Building – Addressing Environmental and Sustainability Issues Through the Use of Wood in Building and Design”.
New Zealand companies are reporting an increasing number of enquiries from consumers about how wood’s green performance compares with other materials.
The conference will look at the findings of the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources’ first life cycle report on the environmental performance of construction materials in residential housing.
The report says energy consumption, emissions to air and water, and levels of solid waste by stage of processing were all found to be higher for steel than wood. Concrete’s environmental emissions were between 18-86% higher than wood.
The FEIA will examine how the timber sector can effectively use the findings.
