Bauhaus Earth at New York Climate Week

During New York Climate Week 2023, Bauhaus Earth – together with Wood at Work and Built by Nature – hosted a working session on “Systemic Intervention: A Holistic Transition to a Bio-Material-Based Building Sector”.

The intrinsic benefits of wood and other plant-based building materials – the carbon storage capacity of biomass, the stabilizing role of regenerative forest management during a period of extreme ecosystem disturbance (due to anthropogenic and climate factors), the advent and rapid evolution of a new class of products and assemblies that can readily substitute for structural steel and reinforced concrete in urban mid-rise structural applications – raise a fundamental question as we approach a terrestrial tipping point:

How can we ensure that an engineered wood revolution will not deplete or destroy global forest ecosystems in a rush to meet the demands of human population growth and urbanization?

Our roundtable working session revolved around three interconnected content areas that underpin a systemic response to the challenges of nature-based climate solutions in the building sector. We thank all participants for their valuable contributions to this debate, and we look forward to continued collaboration and commitment.