One of the most important ways to mitigate climate change is to reduce dependence on fossil resources. Wood is a renewable and reusable building material. Above all, wood stores carbon.

As the building sector contributes up to 40% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions, it plays a vital role in combatting climate change. Wood construction is a part of the solution. The long service life of Kerto® LVL, birch plywood, spruce plywood and Finnjoist ensures long carbon storage times. Every tree used in construction stores carbon and makes room for new seedlings – a new carbon sink.

The carbon storage calculator calculates the carbon stored in different Metsä Wood products by volume and helps our customers and designers make more sustainable choices for building products. For example, for the full life cycle of the building, 5 m³ of Kerto LVL S-beams store an amount of carbon that corresponds to 3970 kg of CO₂. 

The stored carbon originates from the atmosphere as trees absorb CO₂ and water to produce carbohydrates by utilising the energy from sunlight. These carbohydrates are part of the tree structure in which the carbon stays stored. As long as the wood product is in use, carbon stays stored. Reuse and recycling ensure prolonged carbon storage. Once the material is disposed, biogenic carbon is released back to the atmosphere. The released carbon is again absorbed by trees from in the form of CO₂ and used to produce new carbohydrates. 

The unit for carbon storage is CO₂ equivalent (CO₂ eq.). This unit means that the amount of carbon is changed to corresponding amount of CO₂.  If a product stores carbon 1000 kg CO₂ eq. it is the same amount of carbon as in 1000 kg of carbon dioxide.