Open AccessSouth African log resource availability and potential environmental impact of timber construction
Author(s) -
Philip L. Crafford,
C. Brand Wessels
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
south african journal of science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.317
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1996-7489
pISSN - 0038-2353
DOI - 10.17159/sajs.2020/6419
Subject(s) - embodied energy , global warming , afforestation , resource (disambiguation) , sustainability , environmental science , building material , global warming potential , natural resource economics , business , greenhouse gas , agroforestry , climate change , civil engineering , engineering , ecology , economics , computer network , computer science , biology
We investigated the South African log resource availability and the potential global warming impact of an increasing wood-based residential building market. We have shown that, with the use of wood resources currently exported as chips, as well as planting trees in areas that have been earmarked for afforestation, a sustainable residential building market, where all constructions are wood-based, is possible. However, in the short term, imports of wooden building components might be necessary if rapid growth in woodbased building occurs. Basic modelling analyses show that if the market share of wood-based buildings increases to 20% of new constructions, the embodied energy and global warming potential of the residential building sector could decrease by 4.9%. If all new constructions were wood based, the total embodied energy and global warming potential of the residential building sector could decrease by up to 30%.