Compare materials
Glulam and CLT carry loads; the other five insulate or fill walls. Use this page to see orders of magnitude, then compare products that do the same job in a building.
CO2 stored in the material
A1 Growing, harvesting and raw materials A2 Transport to the factory A3 Making the product A4 Transport to the building site A5 Building it in
- Beech glued laminated timber (glulam)Deciduous wood 1 14621.2
- Cross-laminated timber (CLT)Evergreen wood 70420.3
- Particleboard (P5) from SRC chipsShort rotation coppice 1 17423.7
- Wood fibre insulation board, dry processForest residues 2695.4
- Straw bale insulation (small rectangular bales) in timber frameCrop residue 1450.9
- Miscanthus-lime lightweight concrete blockPerennial crops 248264.7
- Hemp-lime concrete (hempcrete) wall infillDedicated crops 182210.3
Values in kg per m³ of installed product. Both sides use the same kg scale, so bar lengths can be compared directly.
All figures
| Material | Fossil CO2e growing to installed |
Low to high | A1 | A2 | A3 | A4 | A5 | CO2 stored | Flows with a number | Data quality 1 best |
EPD A1-A3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beech glued laminated timber (glulam) Deciduous wood |
21.2 | 13.5–41.7 | 4.4 | 9.0 | 0.0 | 6.1 | 1.6 | 1 146 | 5 of 23 | 4.0 | – |
| Cross-laminated timber (CLT) Evergreen wood |
20.3 | 14.4–32.8 | 7.2 | 7.7 | 0.0 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 704 | 6 of 21 | 3.6 | 53.8 |
| Particleboard (P5) from SRC chips Short rotation coppice |
23.7 | 13.4–43.8 | 5.4 | 12.0 | 0.0 | 6.2 | 0.0 | 1 174 | 14 of 35 | 4.0 | 198.0 |
| Wood fibre insulation board, dry process Forest residues |
5.4 | 4.5–8.8 | 3.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 269 | 3 of 12 | 3.3 | 116.0 |
| Straw bale insulation (small rectangular bales) in timber frame Crop residue |
0.9 | 0.5–1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 145 | 2 of 9 | 3.5 | – |
| Miscanthus-lime lightweight concrete block Perennial crops |
264.7 | 229.7–305.5 | 253.1 | 7.2 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 248 | 12 of 26 | 3.0 | – |
| Hemp-lime concrete (hempcrete) wall infill Dedicated crops |
210.3 | 175.1–254.3 | 204.1 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 182 | 18 of 27 | 3.0 | – |
kg per m³. A1 Growing, harvesting and raw materials; A2 Transport to the factory; A3 Making the product; A4 Transport to the building site; A5 Building it in. A3 is zero where factory energy is still a gap.