Wood a wonder material

Wood takes less than a tenth of the energy of steel and concrete and is cheaper.

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Forestry Minister Jim Anderton today extolled the virtues of wood as a building material. "Wood is environmentally friendly because it is energy efficient. Compared to wood substitutes like steel and concrete, it needs less than a tenth of the energy. Recent research in New Zealand shows that building in wood can be eight percent cheaper than concrete and five percent cheaper than steel over the fifty year life of a building."

In Wellington, Jim Anderton was launching the NZ Wood project, a promotional campaign being launched by the industry. He went on to ask why wood isn't used more, when researchers can find no technical or financial reason preventing its greater use in commercial buildings.

"The major barrier seems to be that we get used to doing things a certain way. And there are few examples of commercial or public buildings constructed predominately from wood," Jim Anderton said. "The NZWood campaign is going to set out to break this Catch-22 by providing high-quality information about wood and its advantages."

Three quarters of the $4.8 million for the wood promotion campaign is government funded through the Forest Industry Development Agenda. "It's a good example of the advantages of the government working in partnership with the private sector," Jim Anderton said. "I hope the industry commits itself to this campaign for the long haul and maintains its enthusiasm. This campaign will help forestry develop as a vibrant, commercially sustainable and internationally competitive sector."

The government is supporting the wood industry because it will result in more trees being planted. "More trees help to reduce the impact of climate change, and that's vital for New Zealand," Jim Anderton said. "NZWood stands to be a very valuable campaign for our environment, our economy and our lifestyles."