Carbon storage and renewable materials: the trade-offs of the timber resource

Timber is currently a trending topic in the debate concerning our built environment’s carbon neutrality, due to its renewable nature and the potential to store carbon. Nevertheless, this premise is sometimes inaccurately interpreted, as proven by the recently emerging concept of buildings becoming carbon sinks. The paper explores three fields in which misconceptions appear to be grounded, namely the inaccurate use of vocabulary about carbon storage in timber, the renewable-based assumption disregarding carbon transfer patterns and the finite nature of forests, and the competing market sectors relying on a resource with uncertain availability. By identifying existing and future trade-offs, the contribution points out how the carbon neutrality of urban areas cannot disregard the territory they extract resources from.