Carbon storage calculator

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 (1). Wood construction is a part of the solution. Designing Kerto® LVLbirch plywoodspruce plywood and Finnjoist products for long service life ensures long carbon storage times. Reuse and recycling ensure prolonged carbon storage.  

Production of Metsä Wood products creates also fossil greenhouse gases. Main sources of emissions when producing Metsä Wood products comes from production site, raw materials and logistics. Metsä Wood aims to decrease its fossil climate impact and we have a target of Fossil free mills by 2030. You can read more about our targets on reducing our climate impact on Wood 2030 Targets -page. 

The Product Climate Impact calculator calculates the average fossil emissions (GWP-fossil) and carbon storage in different Metsä Wood products by volume and helps our customers and designers make more sustainable choices for building products. The calculator is based on Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for Metsä Wood’s products.  


(1) IRP, Resource Efficiency and Climate Change, 2020, and UN Environment Emissions Gap Report 2019

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.