Wood is strong enough to build skyscrapers and yet flexible enough to withstand many earthquakes. It also has a lower carbon footprint than steel and concrete.
The textile sector emits 2 to 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases and is responsible for 9 percent of microplastic pollution to our oceans, largely due to synthetic fibres made from fossil fuels. Choosing wood-based textiles like viscose and lyocell can help make the fashion industry more sustainable.
Wood products, when sourced sustainably, have the potential to lock away 1 billion tons of CO₂ per year by 2050. That's the equivalent of taking over 200 million cars off the road.
In the Netherlands, lock gates are made from responsibly sourced African azobé, helping to manage water, protecting land from floods, and ensuring smooth sailing for ships on the country’s many canals.
Since 2000, the area of certified sustainably managed forests has increased by almost eight times to an area roughly the size of the European Union. When responsibly sourced, wood is nature’s renewable material that can contribute to a resilient planet, reduce deforestation, and fight ecosystem degradation.
Biodegradable wood can even replace metal in satellites, which have led to more than 140 million pieces of space debris lasting for thousands of years in Earth’s orbit.
Grow the Solution is a global awareness campaign of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests Communicators’ Network Joint Initiative to show that forests and wood can be an answer to the world’s numerous challenges. Our slogan says it plainly: the solution to climate change, to housing shortage, to pollution, may be growing right outside your window.
