There is huge potential for the sustainable production and trade of wood products to accelerate climate change mitigation and reduce the world’s material footprint, while providing environmental and socioeconomic benefits. Sustainable wood is a renewable material that stores carbon for its lifetime and presents a viable alternative to unsustainable materials such as concrete, steel, plastics and synthetic fibres. However, the challenge is to improve public understanding around the benefits of sustainable growing and harvesting of trees for multi‐purpose use.
There is a need to engage people with a new message: that sustainable production and transparent trade of forest products can help tackle climate change while promoting sustainable livelihoods and economic prosperity.
Help spread the word by sharing the multimedia assets below, many of which are available in multiple languages. Don’t forget to use the #GrowTheSolution hashtag!
By 2030, we will have to house an additional 3 billion people. Using wood from sustainably managed forests means we can create homes that don’t cost us the Earth.
Over the centuries, we’ve moved away from using wood as a building material, at great cost to the planet.
Wood helps provide safe drinking water, food and shelter - but wood can do much more and is a renewable resource when forests are managed sustainably.
Replacing more of the plastic things we use every day with wood-based products from sustainably managed forests can help combat climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Materials derived from forests and trees are being developed as sustainable substitutes for plastics, building materials, fabrics, medicines and many other everyday items.
Wood can be a material of the future, helping to build a bio-economy for the planet's health and economic recovery.
These messages are aligned with the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and the objectives of the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration.
