In a recent survey of building specifiers, the majority perceived wood to be the most environmentally friendly building material. Compared to other major building materials, this is due mainly to:

• the renewability of wood
• the low energy consumption required for production
• the low levels of pollutant emission during manufacture

Lately, environmental considerations have acquired more importance in the specification of materials. Technical and economic aspects of building materials have always been primary considerations for specifiers. Increasingly, however, they are considering the environmental effects when selecting appropriate building materials for their designs.

Architects, engineers and designers require accurate information to assess the true environmental consequences of the materials they specify.

The environmental impacts of various building materials have been examined by a Canadian Research Alliance using the internationally accepted method called Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA). The Alliance consists of researchers from the wood, steel and concrete industries as well as university groups and consultants.

Since wood-frame construction was first used in the early 1800’s, North Americans have developed and been sheltered by wood-frame building technology — from single family homes and progressing over the decades to larger, multi-storey apartment buildings and townhouses. In fact, over 90% of the 1.5 million homes built in North America each year are constructed using woodframe construction. Wood-frame construction provides North Americans with the world’s highest housing standards. There are many reasons for the success of the wood frame system:

It is easy to build

It has a proven track record

It delivers excellent value

It has a high strength to weight ratio

It is energy efficient

It is one of the safest building systems in extreme conditions like earthquakes

Wood is an abundant renewable resource

In addition, modern wood-frame construction provides a comparable level of fire safety to non-combustible construction. This technical bulletin will discuss some of the basic principles of fire safety, and dispel some myths about what makes residential buildings fire-safe for both single family homes and multi-family residential buildings.