Interview with Leslie CaplanBusiness Analyst at General Electric,Innovator of Wave Computer Keyboard

Wooden Skyscrapers:Wood as a Viable Alternativeto Concrete and Steel

Electric Vehicles:How Batteries will DefineSustainable Transportation

The Future for Solar EnergySolar Energy’s Climb to becominga Preferred Energy Alternative

PENN SUSTAINAB IL ITY REV IEWPublished by the university of Pennsylvania students

PSR Team

Online Director:Joshua Ng

Layout Director:Tuyet-Van Huynh

Business Director:Aaron Guo

Editor in Chief:Emily Wei

External Director:Luke Saputelli

Managing Editor:Annie Liu

Writer:Douglas Russ

Writer:Hannah Greene

Writer:Berenice Leung

Writer:Emily Zinselmeier

(NOT PICTURED)

Contributing Writer:Larry Liu

Questions or Comments?Please contact us at:

Email:join.psr@gmail.com

Facebook:PSRMagazine

Website:psrmagazine.org

Penn Sustainability ReviewPenn Sustainability Review (PSR) is a student-run online and print publication featuring sustainability-related opinion editorials, leadership interviews, and academic papers. We aim to provide a platform for all members of the Penn community to exchange knowl-edge, ideas, and perspectives on wide-ranging sustainability issues. Over the course of each semester, the PSR team will publish a print publication and will maintain regular online updates —through blogs and editorials— that incorporate relevant thought-pro-voking articles. Both the print and online editions of PSR will cover a number of topics including: climate change, green architecture, corporate strategic sustainability, resource and energy conservation, public policy, and sustainable technology to name a few!

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As the official student sustainability umbrella group at Penn, the Student Sustainability Association (SSAP) was founded in 2010 to foster cohesion among environmentally-fo-cused student groups, develop strategies for impacting campus sustainability, and to create a unified student voice on green issues at Penn.

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SSRR

Letter from the Editor

Dear readers,

Sustainability is all around us− at work and at play. With such a huge pres-ence in our daily lives, it is hard to imagine that the term “sustainability” was only coined over a decade ago. Within these past couple years, however, the idea of sustainability has certainly changed. Now, instead of being just a term, the concept of sustainability encompasses a certain frame of mind that pushes us to reevaluate our individual actions. A sustainabil-ity-focused way of thinking allows us to be more receptive to new ideas, ultimately understanding the importance of social impact, and putting the greater good above ourselves. There’s more to sustainability than just creative ideas though. We must be able to first commit to those ideas and then create a feasible strategy to bring them to life. As the innovator of the Wave Computer Keyboard and an environmental consultant for a number of years, Penn alum Leslie Caplan can attest to the importance of formulating unique, creative strate-gies when implementing ideas. In our third issue, we explore the different implementation stages of sustainability ideas affecting three distinct parts of our lives− through housing, transportation, and energy sources. Within these pages, read about how wood is becoming a new go-to material for constructing skyscrapers, how electric vehicles are increasing their presence on the road, and how solar energy was and still is such a viable source of renewable energy. By sharing these ideas with you, we hope to not only educate, but to inspire you to implement ideas of your own. Often, the first step is just getting your thoughts on paper. Write them down and send them in! We would love to hear your ideas.Together, one idea at a time, we can con-tinue bringing relevant and engaging sustainability issues and ideas to the Penn community.

Enjoy!

Emily Wei EDITOR IN CHIEF EMILYWEI@WHARTON.UPENN.EDU

Table of Contents

Interview with Leslie Caplan:WHARTON-COLLEGE ALUMNA, BUSINESS ANALYST AT GENERAL ELECTRIC,

INNOVATOR OF THE WAVE COMPUTER KEYBOARD

The Rise of the Electric Vehicle:HOW BATTERIES WILL DEFINE SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

The Future for Solar Energy

Building a More Sustainable Future:WOOD AS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO CONCRETE AND STEEL

2.

5.

7.

10.

Interview with

Leslie CaplanWHARTON-COLLEGE ALUMNA, BUSINESS ANALYST AT GENERAL ELECTRIC,

INNOVATOR OF THE WAVE COMPUTER KEYBOARD

2

Leslie Caplan is a Penn alumna who

graduated from Wharton with a

concentration in Political Science

(offered at the time) and from the

College in International Relations

and History. She received her MBA

in Sustainability Management at

Presidio Graduate School and is cur-

rently a business analyst at General

Electric (GE). Ms. Caplan had been

the principal consultant of busi-

ness and sustainability strategy at

GoSustainability for a number of

years, working with clients such

as Apex Investments, W Hotel San

Francisco, CSRwareand Cisco Sys-

tems to develop financial models

and marketing strategies that iden-

tified the need for environmental

considerations when faced with energy efficiency issues and

green architecture. Ms. Caplan had also created and patented

the Wave computer keyboard, a keyboard based on the varying

lengths of the fingers on a hand, that Logitech is now distributing

globally. In the Fall of 2013, PSR had the pleasure of speaking with

Ms. Caplan to discuss corporate sustainability and environmen-

tal consulting. Below is an edited transcript of our discussion.

When you graduated from Penn with a dual degree in Wharton and the College, did you have a specific interest in green business, or did it develop over time?

When I was an undergrad at Penn, I was interested in social

justice and business, but at the time, there was no way to merge

the two. Sustainability was a relatively new term, only gaining

popularity 10 years ago. We didn’t call it that then, but I learned

about the concepts of sustainability through my humanities and

social science classes. An anti-nuclear campaign was one of the

first activities I did with an environmental humanitarian focus.

Then, when I went to law school, I became an environmental at-

torney working on environmental justice issues. Very early on,

I knew I wanted to see and focus on the business aspect of how

businesses and the environment could be integrated through

3

sustainability. There weren’t very many

institutions dedicated to sustainability,

but I went to Presidio Graduate School

for my MBA in Sustainable Manage-

ment and helped shape the field with

my professor Hunter Lovins and tons of

other people. Intellectually, I guess you

could say we were at the forefront of

the corporate sustainability movement.

At the time, Presidio was the newest

business school in the country. It was

great to say that I had attended the old-

est business school too!

Are there any core concepts on sus-tainable business management you learned at Presidio that you can share with us?

At Presidio, we concentrated on some-

thing called the “triple bottom line.”

This means that instead of having just

a financial bottom line, businesses have

social and environmental bottom lines

too. One problem is that when things

get rough, people tend to focus on the

financial bottom line and throw out

the others. The solution is integrating

these three bottom lines into a common

metric− the integrated bottom line. It’s

pretty hard to find companies that have

successfully done this, but a good ex-

ample would be Infosys, a huge Indian

company with branches including IT

and business consulting. Although they

are a mammoth company, their owners’

efforts have integrated integrate social

and environmental stewardship into ev-

ery aspect of its business, making them

as dedicated to their financial bottom

line as they are to their triple. Another

great example would be the private com-

pany Interface. After 21 years of selling

carpets, their owner, Ray Anderson, de-

cided to risk everything, changing the

company’s business model to focus on

fulfilling their triple line instead. Inter-

face has done amazing things ever since.

Now, the company produces fibers from

old carpets, so that when a carpet is

worn out, they can take it, break down

its fibers, and then remake the carpet.

They also focus on selling the service of

carpeting rather than selling the carpet

product itself. This leads to another big

concept in sustainability—that is, prof-

iting from providing services rather

than from selling material goods. The

benefits here are two-fold. Not needing

to buy raw materials is a cost-effective

and sustainable strategy. Essentially,

what they teach at Presidio and other

sustainability programs is that you’re

not bridging the gap between business

and sustainability. There really is no

gap. You are integrating the two so that

they become one.

Could you talk a little bit about the typical role of an environmental consultant?

There are so many different ways to be

a sustainability consultant. Essential-

ly, every aspect of a business or project

can be analyzed through a sustainabil-

ity lens. Sustainability consultants can

have finance backgrounds or business

sustainability ones. On the job, we some-

times apply sustainability tools to solve

a conventional business problem at a

conventional business. Other times we

consult to business that are more clear-

ly “sustainable,” like a solar company. I

worked on a project at a major corpora-

tion once, where we demonstrated that

green buildings had a human resources

impact. If you went and asked the CFO

to allocate capital for energy retrofits,

they would look for the return payback

and then perhaps decide they would

rather build a new factory than give us

money to retrofit the current one. In-

stead, what we did was recognize that

human resources represent a huge part

of operation cost, and that retrofitting

buildings is a much more cost-effective

way of cutting human resources costs—

through higher employee satisfaction

and retention rates—than typical strat-

egies. Previously, companies had only

looked at energy savings as the met-

ric by which to evaluate the benefit of

4

green building retrofits. By attributing a dollar val-

ue to the human resources impact, we could show

exponentially larger financial benefits. Metrics

are so important. These numbers are what made

the argument for retrofitting so much more com-

pelling. See how creative you need to be to devise

unique strategies like this? Not all MBA students

or Wharton undergrads are cut out for this type of

creative work, but Wharton gives you the funda-

mental tools to ask questions that lead to creative

solutions and then figure out how to demonstrate

that being sustainable improves the company’s fi-

nancial bottom line.

How do you see the integration between busi-ness and sustainability progressing in the fu-ture?

That’s such a hard question. I think future growth

will emerge from economically less-developed

countries (ELDCs). ELDCs are a huge market—if

you can make pennies per unit by selling to them

and providing value, then you are building the

base of our sustainability pyramid. For instance,

entrepreneurs have started selling solar powered

cooking stations to people who used kerosene to

cook, or created apps to facilitate the transfer of

information between two rural towns. A strong

entrepreneurial culture is already initiating social

impact businesses models that encompass sustain-

ability—and not just the environmental kind, so-

cial sustainability too. In terms of corporate sus-

tainability, I can’t predict what will happen. I don’t

expect some crazy change though. Think about

how many people are in the information officer or

investor relations office at 10 large corporations.

Then think about how many sustainability vice

presidents, managers, and employees are in their

entire billion-dollar companies—typically only a

few. This just isn’t nearly enough internal push for

corporate sustainability.

So are you saying that the lack of sustain-ably-minded people in businesses is the great-est obstacle facing corporate sustainability?

That’s one reason. There cannot be any fundamen-

tal shift in an organization that dedicates so few

resources to sustainability. There is also a huge

legal obstacle to making decisions on sustainabil-

ity alone. Corporate laws require that companies

make decisions based on the financial interests of

shareholders. But not all hope is lost. Some corpo-

rations are looking into B Corp—a program en-

couraging companies to make decisions based on

environmental and social impact—since it saves

money and is ultimately the right financial deci-

sion. It’s really all about how you do your calcu-

lations. If you’re thinking in quarterly terms like

most companies do, then you’re out of luck in

terms of following the triple bottom line. If this

is something more long term, then I think there

are huge financial arguments to be made for sus-

tainability. In the end, that’s what it comes to: the

company or the company’s people being willing to

make financial arguments for sustainability.

What would be your advice for undergraduate students who are interested in corporate sus-tainability as a career?

Do internships wherever you can. Internships al-

low you to develop skills and really immerse your-

selves in strong businesses and introduce some

of the higher-level thinking I talked about today.

Learn the fundamentals of the businesses you are

interested in, always keeping in mind where deci-

sions could be made with a focus on sustainability.

Make those suggestions and support them with fi-

nancial, as well as social and environmental argu-

ments.

Seeking information is important too. It doesn’t

matter what aspect of sustainability, you need to

figure out what the greatest things going on in

the field are by talking to people, going to speak-

er events, and attending webinars. It’s hard to

acquire knowledge as someone from the outside.

Feel confident. You know more than you think.

Sustainability is a broad field. If you focus and

learn about a specific area of interest to you, you

wil quickly know more than many, many other

folk in the field. Have the confidence to call people,

learn what you can, and use what you learn. Take

your good ideas into companies you work for or

think would be interested. Find a place where new

ideas are welcome. In this field, everything is new.

Have fun.

For more information on Leslie Caplan, visit

lesl iecaplan.com

Interviewed by Emily Wei

The Rise of the

Electric VehicleHOW BATTERIES WILL DEFINE SUSTAINABILE TRANSPORTATION

“...by 2060, it is well within possibility that, worldwide, over 60 percent of vehicles will be powered by electricity,

hydrogen, or a combination of both.”

In 2012, the Utah State Legislature passed a series of bills

aimed at reversing the trend of declining air quality in the

Wasatch Front, Utah’s urban and economic corridor. Days of

smoke-blanketed skylines and air quality alerts were on the

rise throughout the region, harming the quality of life for the

area’s two million residents. Keeping in mind that tailpipe

emissions account for more than half of the city’s pollution,

lawmakers attempted to clean up Utah’s transportation by en-

couraging the use of cleaner, natural gas vehicles, in addition

to enforcing a host of other emissions regulation. This was

clearly a step in the right direction.

Also buried in the legislation were tax credits for electric ve-

hicles (EVs), vehicles that use energy from rechargeable bat-

teries instead of hydrocarbon fuels. And in the past several

months, the state legislature took further action, ordering the

Public Service Commission to immediately conduct research

into measures that would promote the use of alternative vehi-

cles – namely all-electric vehicles (BEVs), which run solely on

electricity, and hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEVs), which utilize

both electricity and conventional fuel. Given that all-electric

vehicles produce no tailpipe emissions, there is potential for

drastic improvements in Utah’s unsustainable smog problem

should motorists adopt the technology.

It appears as if that potential will be realized for Utah and

much of the world. Shell Oil Company released its 40th an-

nual “New Lens Scenario” last March, a project that explores

possible global energy scenarios stretching decades into the

future. In the 2013 report, Shell’s research team concluded that

While hydrogen fuel-cell technology is still in its infancy,

BEVs have been on the market for several years. Initial adop-

tion has been slow, and most people have still never person-

ally interacted with an electric vehicle. However, when look-

ing at the developments in the electric vehicle market, it is

easy to see how their adoption will begin to widely spread as

the New Lens Scenario indicates, promising clearer days for

cities like Utah and more sustainable global vehicle usage.

5

For the United States and other developed nations,

BEV adoption provides a net benefit for the cli-

mate. Skeptics point out tthat if a grid’s electricity

is carbon heavy, the electric vehicle is simply out-

sourcing its pollution to a nearby coal or natural

gas power plant. This is true, but the reality is that

in the United States and Europe, the largest electric

vehicle markets, BEVs still have less of an impact

on the environment than traditional vehicles. This

is because these countries have major non-carbon

energy sources,

meaning that

the electricity

powering the

vehicle will

have a signif-

icant source

of zero-carbon

energy. In oth-

er words, the

electricity has a

smaller carbon

footprint per

unit of energy

than gasoline.

As the United

States shifts

further toward

a grid powered by natural gas, wind, and solar en-

ergy, the source of electric power will become in-

creasingly cleaner than oil-based gasoline.

The largest benefits will be seen for cities like Phila-

delphia, where, according to Greenworks Philadel-

phia, over 5 billion vehicle-miles are logged each

year. Adoption of electric vehicles in and around

cities will keep the local air and water systems

cleaner. Because of this, the University of Pennsyl-

vania already encourages EV use. The Perelman

Center for Advanced Medicine has installed 21 EV

charging stations, and many university depart-

ments, including Public Safety and Urban Park,

employ electric motorcycles, golf-carts, and trucks

to reduce emissions on campus. Dan Garofalo, Penn’s Environmental Sustainability Director,

states that while Penn currently does not have

a plan to completely shift its vehicles to electric,

“we should gradually move toward the use of EVs

where possible,” noting that “a lot of people across

campus are making these decisions [to adopt elec-

tric vehicles] independently.” For Garofalo, EV use

on Penn’s campus is mostly geared toward raising

public awareness about the associated environ-

mental benefits in an urban environment.

Indeed, while sales of EVs and PHEVs in the Unit-

ed States and Europe are rising, many factors of

the market will need to change before mass adop-

tion can be reached. Battery technology must ad-

vance to provide single-charge ranges that can

fit the needs of long-distance commuters. At the

same time, pro-

duction costs

for electric ve-

hicles, notably

batteries, will

need to drop

significantly

to reduce the

market’s de-

pendence on

g o v e r n m e n t

subsidies and

ensure that

c o n s u m e r s

will be saving

money over

the lifetime of

their vehicles.

Also, consumer skepticism must be deconstruct-

ed. This will only come with time and continued

adoption. Although these issues pose significant

obstacles for the BEV market, technological inno-

vation will gradually resolve them. As a study of

the Belfer Center of Harvard University presents,

should batteries become less costly and gas pric-

es rise as expected, the lifetime cost of BEVs will

become markedly cheaper than conventional ve-

hicles in about fifteen years. Furthermore, Tesla

Motors has dramatically demonstrated with the

Model S that batteries offering ranges of over 250

miles are already feasible for production and that

their costs are falling quickly. The rise of the elec-

tric vehicle is simply a matter of when, ultimately

serving to make our cities more livable and our

transportation more sustainable.

Written by Douglas Russ

6

The Future for

Solar EnergyAmidst ongoing debates about a potential scarcity of fossil fuel

resources, many scientists are expanding to different energy

markets, working to harness new technology for renewable re-

sources in an effort to reduce our overall fossil fuel consump-

tion. One such technology involves the development of solar

panels. The greater implementation of solar energy is long over-

due, especially because of current concerns regarding elevated

CO2 emissions. With CO

2 levels rising at unprecedented rates

exceeding 400 parts per million, we must reduce consumption

of fossil fuels by developing more solar panels. The major benefit

of solar energy has been its almost negligible amount of green-

house gas emission compared to that of gas, oil and coal.1 The

need for energy will continue to remain high in the immediate

future, especially due to a rising population. Providing everyone

with relatively clean solar technology can help us meet that de-

mand.

Renewable energy research has seen a major boost in the re-

search community. In order to track the extent of innovation

in scientific research we can count the number of patents pro-

duced in each industry. A study carried out by researchers from

MIT and the Santa Fe Institute found that while patents for fos-

sil fuel technologies grew modestly, the number of patents in-

creased by 13% per year for solar energy technology between

2004 and 2009.2 Scientists’ general shift in focus to renewable

7

1. http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report/IPCC_SRREN_Full_Report.pdf2. http://thitnkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/15/2779741/renewable-energy-pat ents-booming-led-solar-wind/ and http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3A doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067864

energy, and solar technology in par-

ticular, displays the enormous growth

potential of solar energy in comparison

with the relatively stagnant fossil fuel

industry.

Within the solar industry, solar pan-

els are the main technology being de-

veloped. Thanks to generous subsidies

from governments around the world,

many solar panels have been built over

the last decade, installations increas-

ing by 59% between 2007 and 2012.3

Because of government subsidies, Ger-

many, has become a major pioneer of

solar technology development over the

past decade, deriving 5.3% of its total

electricity from solar energy compared

to other more traditional fossil fuels

and nuclear energy.4 In 2011, Germa-

ny had only received 3% of its energy

supply from solar energy.5 The world’s

largest solar energy company is Ying-

li Green Energy

(China).6

Head-

quartered in

Baoding, Haik-

ou, Tianjin and

Hengshui, Ying-

li also owns re-

search, develop-

ment and testing

labs located in

San Francisco,

California.7 The

company has in

total installed

26 million so-

lar panels in 40

different coun-

tries.8 The suc-

cessful growth

of Yingli demon-

strates theenormous potential for the

solar energy industry. The solar in-

dustry has been growing rapidly. It is

no wonder that many firms have been

lured into the solar energy business.

Traditionally, one objection against so-

lar energy investments has been high

costs relative to oil and gas. People fear

that, because governments greatly sub-

sidize the operations of solar energy, as

soon as these subsidies disappear, the

development of solar panels would fall

to the wayside due to their high costs.

However, these objections are very

much unwarranted. In fact, the cost per

watt for solar energy has been decreas-

ing year after year. In the US, the price

for one watt of solar energy declined

from $22 in 1980 to less than $3 in 2011.9

In the US, there is the well-known fact

that oil and natural gas industries re-

ceive more subsidies and tax breaks

than renewable energy, largely reflect-

ing the enormous political clout of the

fossil fuel industry in Washington D.C.

Between 2002 and 2008, the US feder-

8

3. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article. cfm?id=can-solar-challenge-natural-gas4. http://www.unendlich-viel-energie.de/en/details/ article/226/share-of-renewables-in-germanys-en ergy-market.html 5. http://cleantechnica.com/2012/01/10/germany-in stalled-a-record-7-5-gw-of-solar-power-in-2011/ 6. http://solarlove.org/top-solar-power-companies/ 7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yingli 8. http://www.yinglisolar.com/en/projects/

9. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest- blog/2011/03/16/smaller-cheaper-faster-does- moores-law-apply-to-solar-cells/ 10. http://www.elistore.org/Data/products/d19_07. pdf

al government doled out $72 billion in

subsidies to the fossil fuel industry com-

pared to $29 billion for renewable en-

ergy.10

Therefore, it is no surprise that

fossil fuels are cheaper than solar ener-

gy in this country. In Germany, Spain,

Portugal, Australia and the Southwest-

ern part of the United States− where

there are often sunny days than not−

residential solar panels have reached

grid-parity with average residential

electricity prices. It is expected that Ja-

pan will reach grid-parity sometime

between 2014 and 2016, South Korea

between 2016 and 2020, and the UK be-

tween 2018 and 2021. Though US shale

gas flows very abundantly due to the

uncovering of enormous gas reserves,

this trend has not been representative

of other countries. In Europe and Asia,

for example, gas is expensive enough to

make solar energy competitive. Mean-

while, in countries like India or in plac-

es in Africa, solar energy has become

even cheaper than diesel-based electric-

ity.11

Continuous research and innova-

tion will continue to reduce the price

for solar energy, and will make it a pre-

ferred energy alternative for businesses

and residents.

Another obstacle for the solar industry

is the ease with which companies can

gain entry to solar panel manufactur-

ing markets. Because companies use the

same production strategies and create

very similar products, there is little dif-

ferentiation, and great competition. This

may make solar panel production very

unprofitable, and in some cases, over-

production has already occurred. In the

US for example, government-backed

Solyndra and Evergreen, two major so-

lar companies, have gone bankrupt. In

Europe, new solar installations dropped

from 4 GW to 1.5 GW from 2012 to 2013,

and in Germany from 7.6 GW to 3 GW

in the same time period. On the oth-

er hand, overproduction is happening

alongside growth. China is expecting

to double its new installations to about

10 GW by 2016, and Japan’s will also be

doubled to 5 GW. Growth is also expect-

ed in, the Middle East (3.5 GW), and India

(1.3 GW). The issue of overproduction is

usually resolved by firm consolidation

over the long term, so a collapse of the

solar industry cannot be predicted sole-

ly on overproduction concerns. Instead,

the long-term challenge may be very

high increase in costs for solar energy

due to oligopolistic firm rents, which

will come at a heavy price. High prices

especially affect low-income customers.

In the future, a focus on solar energy and

its technological developments must be

maintained and its power harnessed

in order for humans to consistently

maintain their high standard of living.

Though overproduction may temporar-

ily hamper the smooth development of

the solar panel market, the technology

is continuing to improve, allowing the

cost of solar energy to become more af-

fordable and, in the near future, even

cheaper than fossil fuels.

Written by Larry Liu

9

11. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article. cfm?id=can-solar-challenge-natural-gas 12. http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/30/technology/ solar_power/?source=cnn_bin 13. http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059977027/ print 14. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article. cfm?id=can-solar-challenge-natural-gas

“Continuous research and innovation will continue to reduce the price for solar energy, and will make it a preferred energy alternative for businesses

and residents.”

Building a More

Sustainable FutureWOOD AS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO CONCRETE AND STEEL

Deforestation, both in the United States and abroad, has re-

mained a central issue when discussing environmentalism

during the past couple decades. Although this widespread at-

tention prompted substantial change in how forests are man-

aged on both a regional and an international scale, it has also

given rise to misperceptions regarding timber as a viable con-

struction material in large-scale developments.

As it stands now, most commercial buildings incorporate two

principal materials in their designs: concrete and steel. Howev-

er, according to Jim Bowyer, Responsible Materials Program Director at Dovetail Partners, an environmental consulting

firm, wood is superior to both concrete and steel from an envi-

ronmental perspective, as long as it is harvested in a sustain-

able manner—a standard that organizations like the Forest

Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initia-

tive (SFI) set. This can be determined using a tool known as

the life cycle assessment (LCA) for each material; this method

takes into account the inputs required, like energy and water,

as well as the outputs generated, such as emissions and waste,

during each step in a product’s life—from raw material ex-

traction to manufacturing and distribution, sometimes even

including product life and disposal.

“There have been numerous studies comparing wood, con-

crete, and steel as construction materials, and there has been

a remarkable convergence in findings that indicate greater en-

vironmental impacts linked to steel, and even more so to con-

crete construction, with impacts higher at a wide range of im-

pact indicators,” Bowyer said. “All materials are going to have

inputs and outputs associated with them, but when looking at

the relative impacts, it’s clear that timber is the more sustain-

able choice.”

Concrete production in particular is detrimental to the environ-

ment because cement is the active ingredient in concrete, and in

manufacturing cement, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is convert-

ed to calcium oxide (CaO), thus releasing carbon dioxide (CO2)

gas. Using timber, on the other hand, decreases a building’s

carbon footprint through sequestration: Trees remove carbon

from the atmosphere and use it in making wood, so when the

trees are harvested and the wood is used in construction ap-

pli-cations, it continues to store the carbon throughout its lifes-

pan, making it a “carbon sink.” In fact, each cubic meter of wood

sequesters just under 1,686 pounds of carbon dioxide, Nicolas

10

ACCORDING TOKRIS SPICKLER

The total area covered in forests is the same now as

it was in 1907.

Angleys, Marketing Advisor for Nordic Engineered Wood, said.

On a practical level, when using wood

as opposed to concrete or steel, harvest-

ed timber does not need to be altered

or treated prior to use in a commer-

cial structure; nonetheless, engineered

wood is also an option. Because non-al

tered lumber samples exhibit various ex-

pansion and strength capabilities, some

companies, like Nordic Engineered

Wood and Structurlam Products, alter

the original samples in order to stan-

dardize the expansion properties as well

as increase the wood’s overall strength

and sturdiness.

“Construction has dropped since 2008,

but taking that into consideration and

looking at the buildings that have been

erected in that time, I have seen an in-

crease in demand for our product,” Kris Spickler, Structurlam Products timber specialist, said. “It’s clear that wood is

gaining momentum as an alternative to

concrete and steel.”

The most recent innovation in engi-

neered wood is Cross-Laminated Tim-

ber (CLT), a sheet whose dimensions

are massive compared to previous en-

gineered wood products, Spickler said.

Smaller 2x6 pieces combine to form

large CLT panels, which can then be

used to replace concrete in the “tilt-up

method,” a construction technique that

involves pouring cement into walls

and then tilting them up into the struc-

ture’s design. Using wood as opposed

to concrete allows companies to erect

buildings more quickly, since wood is

lighter than concrete and doesn’t re-

quire two weeks to set; it’s also advan-

tageous in that it allows workers to

continue to work throughout the win-

ter, whereas in some areas, companies

can’t pour concrete during the winter

months because the ground is frozen.

In addition to being the more sustain-

able material when compared to con-

crete and steel, wood—whether har-

vested and used in engineered lumber

or not—also has procedural and aes-

thetic advantages while still being com-

petitive from a financial perspective.

Because wood products are pre-fab-

ricated, nothing needs to be created

on the job site, which “revolutionizes

the construction process as we know

it,” Spickler said; timber structures

can be completed much more quick-

ly on the whole than those made from

concrete and steel, and waste is mini-

mized. When looking at the completed

11

“According to Bowyer, one calculation projects that replacing concrete and steel with wood in the United States for one year—only where it is both tech-nically possible and in line with using sustainable practices to harvest the timber from our forests—would be equivalent to taking millions of cars off

the road in terms of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions.”

structures themselves, wood also pro-

vides a new experience for clients.

“Timber structures have an organic, har-

monious aesthetic appeal,” Peter Busby, Managing Director at Perkins+Will San Francisco, said. “We incorporate

wood in our projects not only because

it’s the more sustainable option, but also

because it allows people to feel in tune

with the building’s environment.”

There are some challenges that could

slow timber’s progress as an emerging

alternative to

concrete and

steel, howev-

er. One core

setback is

public misper-

ception relat-

ed to wood’s

structural ca-

pabilities and long-term durability.

Apprehension related to the fire haz-

ard a large-scale wooden structure

might pose, for example, is a common

concern. But this trepidation is un-

substantiated when large-sized tim-

bers and thick panels are used: Be-

cause these building elements have

such large cross-sections, the wood

begins to char when it comes into con-

tact with fire, forming an insulation lay-

er, which then lessens the fuel contribu-

tion to the fire, Bowyer said. In addition,

the wood burns at a slow and predict-

able rate, which allows people time to

exit safely.

“A massive timber construction is typ-

ically safer in a fire than steel and con-

crete structures,” Bowyer said. “Due to

thermal expansion, when steel heats

up, it gets longer, meaning steel beams

can topple the concrete walls that an-

chor them. Furthermore, because

steel quickly becomes ductile at

high temperatures, it then loses

its strength and collapses, whi-

ch compromises the building’s

structural integrity. I’ve seen

examples where steel did just th-

at, and the building’s roof and ov-

erall structure was then held up by

wood beams and timbers.”

In smaller-scale wooden structures, on

the other hand, fire concerns are much

more pronounced. In these cases, ad-

vanced sprin-

kler, alarm,

and smoke

control ap-

proaches are

integrated into

the buildings;

fire-retardant

treatment is an

option, albeit a less common one, as

well, Spickler said.

Due in part to concerns about fire haz-

ards, building codes are another hurdle

for the large-scale wood construction

movement—although one that some

have begun to address. Right now, the

International Building Code (IBC) does

not recognize mass timber construc-

tion; however, ANSI/APA PRG 320—a

standard for performance-rated CLT to

be used in construction applications—

was accepted in 2012 and will be inte-

grated into the 2015 IBC, Spickler said.

But there is still more to be done.

“The main problem is that people—leg-

islators, consumers, designers—are re-

luctant to change,” Angleys said. “The

most important thing we need to do

now is to educate future architects and

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ACCORDING TOKRIS SPICKLER

Today’s forest growth exceeds

harvest by 72 percent.

“A massive timber construction is typically safer in a fire than steel andconcrete structures,” Bowyer said.

13

engineers as well as the general public

about wood as a viable construction

material. Students who go on to gradu-

ate are going to build as their professors

taught them to; they aren’t going to de-

sign what they don’t know, and clients

aren’t going to choose what they don’t

know. So the first step is to teach them.”

If this movement continues to gain

traction, it could have a monumental

environmental impact. According to

Bowyer, one calculation projects that

replacing concrete and steel with wood

in the United States for one year—only

where it is both technically possible and

in line with using sustainable practices

to harvest the timber from our forests—

would be equivalent to taking millions

of cars off the road in terms of fossil fu-

els and carbon dioxide emissions.

Working toward a more sustainable

future is an endeavor that transcends

borderlines, culture distinctions, and

language barriers—it unites us all un-

der one cause. Ensuring that the world

as we know it remains in tact for future

generations is a mission that deserves

constant consideration and develop-

ment. Substituting wood for concrete

and steel as a core construction mate-

rial is one such innovation, and it’s an

option we can no longer ignore.

Written by Emily Zinselmeier