Hannah Teicher: A Canada-wide deconstruction industry should be part of our ‘build back better’ recovery

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Rather than looking to our forests, we should disassemble, reuse valuable wood products that would normally be discarded during demolition.

Lumber prices are still at least 50 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels and are forecast to remain elevated for several years. This is making residential construction more expensive and exacerbating the housing affordability crisis.

The fibre shortage is an area where rethinking reveals better, more resilient, ways of doing business. One of the innovations emerging in the green-leader province of B.C. is deconstruction. That means disassembling and reusing valuable wood products, often old-growth timber, that would normally be discarded in the course of building demolition. This wood is often incinerated in waste-to-energy projects, which is better than landfilling but still produces additional avoidable emissions.

Some of the salvaged wood, particularly larger, older components, can be reused directly once they’re stripped of hardware. Because reclaimed wood is often stronger than new lumber, with regrading, it can offer a superior source for columns and beams. Alternatively, it can be used for flooring, wall-panelling or siding, displacing the use of new synthetic or engineered materials.

When it comes to climate, industry and local governments have focused on energy efficiency to reduce emissions at the building scale. While important, this entirely neglects all of the emissions produced through the extracting, transporting and manufacturing of building products. As buildings become more efficient, these “embodied emissions” make up a greater share of emissions from buildings.

 

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PICSCanada Excellent article, landfill diversion should be a top priority in the construction industry. ♻️💯✅🌎

PICSCanada An economy in which it is cheaper to buy virgin wood than to re-use it has real problems.

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