We need to build the equivalent of a New York City every month.

I have heard this on two occasions this spring: at a PSMA talk on tall wood buildings and on a podcast about opportunities for buildings to help draw down carbon from the atmosphere. Tall wood structures made from mass timber seem poised to help us a lot. We can contribute to drawing down carbon from the atmosphere by choosing different options when we build.

A New New York Each Month

But first, that statistic. Architecture 2030 is a non-profit American research organization that encapsulated the emerging population and construction trends in 2007.

The world is currently undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in human history. More than half of the global population is now concentrated in urban areas, and by 2060 two thirds of the expected population of 10 billion will live in cities. To accommodate this tremendous growth, we expect to add 2.48 trillion square feet (230 billion [square metres]) of new floor area to the global building stock, doubling it by 2060. This is the equivalent of adding an entire New York City every month for 40 years. This new building stock must be designed to meet zero-net-carbon standards.

Tall Wood Buildings

Kyle Elderhorst of MG Architects eloquently explained the backdrop for building more tall buildings as what we call mass timber structures. Kicking off with this statistic and delivering an excellent April talk for the Professional Services Management Association in Vancouver.

Mass timber structures use building technology that forms the next step from early engineered wood products. In the 1990's, engineers started experimenting with ways to use glue and small-diameter trees to achieve what builders had done in the past with large-diameter old-growth trees. That involves shredding trees traditionally too small to mill into lumber and then using those shapes to form larger beams and columns.

Engineered wood products used in mass timber structures leave behind too-small trees and, instead, use regular lumber. Imagine taking regular lumber and gluing it together to make larger beams, larger columns, larger panels, and even large custom modules.

Six important ideas emerged for me at this talk.

• Reducing the carbon embodied in our buildings is a golden opportunity for rapid gains towards low-carbon resilient society

• Mass timber burns like logs while framed buildings burn like kindling

• Pre-fabricated, engineered modules of mass timber assemble rapidly allowing a builder to erect and enclose a structure fast

• Forests capture carbon from the atmosphere that we can trap and store in those buildings we are building each month (1 tonne of carbon dioxide relates to 1 cubic metre of wood)

• Mass timber holds opportunities for lean construction -- design drawing as shop drawing

• Mass timber modules need strict exposure management controls and rigorous construction scheduling

Using buildings in drawdown

David Mead spoke with the Drawdown Agenda recently about how buildings and cities relate to drawing down carbon from the atmosphere. He also cited the Architecture 2030 statement. Over approximately 40 minutes, you get a very good picture of how much potential we have related to using buildings.

One new New York City must be built every month to meet anticipated population demand between now and 2050

David noted many solutions you can find in Project Drawdown and apply when building new buildings and retrofitting old buildings.

• ensure we choose, use and control refrigerants wisely

• plan communities to use district energy systems to share energy and limit entropy

• apply what we know about energy control, insulation and efficiency to limit entropy

• demand high-performance standards of our buildings: Net Zero or Living building

Net Zero buildings generate enough energy each year to cover what they use

Living Buildings act like plants and handle all their own energy, water and waste on site

• think about how buildings cross over into other issues such as urban agriculture, food waste and walkable cities

More livable and more sustainable buildings work together and give better lives for people.

David noted several ideas around action, too.

• we must begin demanding changes in our communities

• we must choose a shared vision for the future we want to have

• we can afford to do it

One high school class of rich people can choose to afford to pay for Drawdown solutions and still retain billions of dollars

• we can agree new baselines to overcome inertia in the construction industry and improve cost certainties

If our vision is a dystopian future, we're likely to go toward a dystopian future.

• great buildings feel great

• regulatory targets and development bonuses may prove as helpful as Japan's subsidy for natural refrigerants is for carbon-dioxide heat pumps

Without much time to dive in, David briefly touches on making sure we remember to create communities that include a range of prosperity levels. Have you heard about Living Futures?

We can tackle many ways our communities can contribute to drawdown. Even changing a hot water heat-pump is easier than you might imagine. Changing from using fossil fuels for heating to using heat pumps is the easiest step toward improving drawdown.

We can show others how we have been able to make a difference.

David's closing thoughts expressed something I had overlooked before. Older generations in overly dominant positions stick to denying climate action. Older generations control decisions and hang on to leadership. Older generations treat fossil fuels with a "smoke it while you got it" attitude.

Optimistically, current generation and high-school students have a very different attitude. You can see that in the Strike for Climate, the ideas coming from David Mead and the ideas coming out of MG Architecture.

I hope all the individuals who don't care can let go and let the next generation who do care and will have to live with [all the changes] take over.

Fascinating. Let's do this.