Toward A Low Carbon Economy
Forests and forest products play a key role in the fight against climate change.
Across our private and tenured lands, more than 650 million trees are storing and capturing carbon.
Sustainably-managed renewable timberlands contribute to a low-carbon economy. Coastal BC forests are the most productive in Canada for carbon sequestration—trees here grow three to four times faster than in other parts of Canada. As trees grow, they capture more and more carbon. Upon maturity, they are converted into products like lumber, flooring and furniture, which locks in the store of carbon.
These wood products are used for years, decades and sometimes even centuries. At the end of their lives, they are often recycled. In the meantime, new trees are planted, capturing even more carbon. For every tree harvested, Mosaic plants at least two seedlings, and we do this in the first planting season after harvest. We visit the replanted site regularly to check on the growth of the new forest and to ensure it develops into another healthy forested area.
By reforesting every harvest area, the virtuous cycle starts again—capturing and storing carbon. Wood products generate substantial benefits in the fight against climate change, particularly when compared to non-renewable building materials.
Mosaic is actively partnering with government agencies and academic institutions to study the Coastal BC carbon budget cycle by providing field research sites that lead to localized calibration for carbon budget modelling. This research provides valuable evidence to better quantify the carbon models when conducting analysis.
How Our Timber Contributes
Wood has inherent sustainability value – it is renewable, grows with the power of the sun, captures carbon along the way and stores it as useful products, such as in homes and furniture.
Research demonstrates that, by choosing wood in place of materials like concrete or steel in construction or plastics in packaging and consumer products, we can reduce our carbon footprint.
The better we understand our end-to-end carbon footprint, the more effective we will be in reducing carbon sources. Early areas of focus in our work include increased biomass utilization, renewable bio-fuels, and increased efficiency from fleet vehicles and equipment.
Our products are displacing non-renewable and carbon-intensive products worldwide.
Timber harvested from Mosaic lands is processed into useful wood-based products domestically and internationally. Manufacturing wood has advanced into a zero-waste industry, as nearly 100% of the fibre in logs brought to North American sawmills is converted into a useful product.
Once manufactured into wood products, our timber goes on for use in a variety of applications, the most significant being the construction of homes and commercial buildings.
ThinkWood has extensive research-backed resources on the sustainability benefits of choosing wood in construction.
