​Current atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, are 40% higher than preindustrial levels. If the current trend in energy usage continues carbon dioxide emissions are estimated to increase by a further 20% by 203556. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other authorities have warned that emissions need to be significantly reduced by 2020 in order to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change, with the global economy reaching net zero emissions by 2050 to limit global warming to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. In order for this to occur emissions not only need to be reduced, but the number of carbon sinks (which remove carbon from the atmosphere) also needs to be increased.
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Through the process of photosynthesis trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it as biomass, mostly wood. Planting more trees will therefore absorb more carbon and help reduce the impact of emissions. When responsibly sourced wood is used as a building material or to create long-lasting products those items become a carbon store – they lock carbon out of the atmosphere. 

Using wood as a building material also means that the use of much more carbon intensive and non-renewable materials like concrete and steel can be reduced. One study for example identified that the total energy consumption in the manufacturing of steel beams is 2-3 times higher, and the use of fossil fuels 6-12 times higher, than manufacturing timber beams. In New Zealand it has been estimated that a 17% increase in wood usage in the building industry would result in a 20% reduction in carbon emissions from the manufacture of all building materials, 1.5% of New Zealand’s total emissions.
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​Furthermore innovative timber systems designed for prefabrication and disassembly allow for reuse of the timber, creating a more resource-efficient product life cycle than typical demolition and down-cycling, helping to avoid landfill waste.

With the global population growing, increasing rates of urbanization and the construction of new buildings are inevitable. If these new buildings were built with wood they would not only act as a long-term carbon store, but they would generate fewer emissions in their construction.

​The use of wood in the interior of a building has clear physiological and psychological benefits that mimic the effect of spending time outside in nature. The feelings of natural warmth and comfort that wood elicits in people have the effect of lowering blood pressure and heart rates, reducing stress and anxiety, increasing positive social interactions and improving corporate image.

These benefits are particularly important for environments where it is difficult to incorporate nature indoors, such as hospitals where strict health and safety guidelines may prevent the presence of plants, and office environments where views from the window are of roads and neighbouring concrete buildings.

Responsibly sourced (and certified) timber has clear health and happiness benefits, as well as being a weapon in the struggle against climate change by both storing carbon and eliminating emissions.

​Wood is one of the oldest and most versatile building materials used by humanity but it also has a large part to play in the future of health and housing. 

- Planet Ark

​A farmer from the surrounding area of ​​our Holz100 plant in Stadl picks wood chips from the production of our houses. "The chips are perfect for mucking out my stables - they are dry and pure in nature!"

It is hard to imagine, but the dense, hard timber that you can crack your head against is nothing but transformed air. Trees draw carbon dioxide from the air, returns oxygen, and uses carbon to build the most incredible structure that mankind refers to as wood. It only utilizes water and a small amount of minerals from the earth for this purpose. It is a structure so complex that the inner surface of one cubic centimeter of wood consists of 150 to 200 square meters in surface area.

Not only is this excellent structure the best natural heat insulator, but it also accumulates and stores heat well. Dr. Thoma in earlier years had already built many of the world's most energy-efficient homes, but even more so, he wanted to prove that it was possible to create an absolutely energy self-sufficient home without an external source of energy such as photovoltaics. He accomplished this by using other ancient methods.

​Therefore he erected a five-floor house in the Bernese Oberland in the Matterhorn area of the Alps, which retains such an optimized facade with an intelligent arrangement of glass elements that during the day the sun falls through large windows on the so-called “sun traps” in the form of black stone floors. They warm up and act as a short-lived heat accumulator, while the high natural heat insulation properties of the wooden walls act as long-lasting heat storage. The house does not have any heating or ventilation, and its air quality and temperature are constantly monitored as part of the research project. Its indoor temperature in winter has never dropped below 18° C.

​​The example of our middle European countries shows that all building materials and energy required for our daily life could be covered from sources which are harmless to our environment. Every architect and builder could save an incredible amount of energy which is now being wasted.

For example, the choice of a wooden window means that only a 126 part of the energy is used compared to an aluminum window. Or the other way around, you could use the same energy which is being used to install one house with aluminum windows to fit 126 houses with wooden windows!

Compare the energy usage in the production of windows, doors, floors, building, furniture, etc.
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The energy used to produce 1 aluminum window could produce 126 timber / wood windows.

Sources: Bavarian State Forestry Commission, Technical University Munich; Bavarian Advisory Committee for Forestry and Timber Management; Bavarian Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry; Federal Environment Ministry, Bonn.

This comparison can be applied to all types of building materials. Think about flooring (wood or synthetics), insulation (hemp or foam), doors, stairways, furniture and much more. Once we use this vast energy resource more effectively such as solar power generators or forests, we will require less power plants, storage, transport, and infrastructure. Our forests are the most energy rich resource available to us and we need to treat and manage nature's gift in a useful and sensible manner.

In Austria, if they were to use wood as building material for our homes (from the floor to the roof, furniture, heating, etc.) they still wouldn't be able to use up the yearly re-growth of wood. There still would be enough trees left to decay and mulch the forest. According to the forestry inventory, only half of the combined yearly re-growth from Germany and Austria together is being harvested. Most of it is being used in a wasteful and toxic way. Imagine what this could mean for North America.

The use of toxic wood preservatives, paints and glues has turned modern wood products into toxic waste which cannot be returned to nature and close this cycle of wood.

When we recognize this ingenious and simple resource, and integrate our ways into the natural cycle again, we will be able to fully replace fossil fuels with renewable energy in the building of future living and working spaces.

Greenhouse gases are mainly carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen and CFCs. They prevent the radiation of heat from the earth into space and thus contributes to the rising temperatures on earth. The measured concentration of these gasses (apart from CFCs which has only been introduced in the last few decades) has risen constantly since 1800.

The three most complete global temperature records available - from the UK Hadley Centre, NASA, and the US National Climate Data Centre - all show a clear upward trend in global average temperatures over the last 150 years (calculated using an 11-year running average).

Science is still unable to identify the exact causes and prospects of the anticipated climate changes on earth and this causes endless political and environmental debates. There is no doubt that globally the average temperature has risen since 1880. If we keep wasting oil, gas and coal and continue plundering our planet, the hole in the ozone layer will be of secondary importance.

We can best avoid environmental and climatic damage if we tune into natural energy cycles. We finally need to recognize the options nature presents us in form of renewable resources and learn how to use wood in ways which will allow us to safely recycle it after we have used it as furniture or building timber.

Maybe sit back for a moment and remember the last time you went for a walk through the forest. Can you feel the soft ground under your feet, the cool, fresh, spicy and healthy air? Don't you think the air freshening, solar power generating, wood-producing forest is a divine gift? It serves us daily free of charge and without fall. There is not one day where nature stops to work for the benefit of people and the earth.

We need to fulfill just one important criterion to keep this wonderful system running: treat wood only with natural products, so it can be released back into nature's cycle and decompose. In other words, avoid using chemical treatments, paints and adhesives. They are of manmade substances and turn wood into toxic waste which is not biodegradable when composted or released into the air and waterways.

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As mentioned, even the European energy supply relies on approximately 75 percent from non-renewable sources like oil, gas and coal and this has a decisive disadvantage: it threatens our environment and our health!

Burning one ton of oil releases 2.8 tons of CO2 waste into the air. This means that the intense use of oil, gas, and coal causes the rise of CO2 into the atmosphere and relates to all the associated risks as warming of the atmosphere.

The question is: does our modern consumer society cause these results and if so, do we have to put up with it? What are useful alternatives?

Our forests can be part of our energy supply. The forest takes CO2 from the air and uses it as a building block to grow trees. If we build products which have a long lifecycle like furniture or homes, CO2 stays bound in the form of 250 kilogram carbon per cubic meter wood. A family which decides to build a wood home takes about 20,000 kilogram carbon from the air.

A tree is the largest, self-renewable storage sink of CO2 and sun energy. It is a power plant which produces oxygen and clean air for us humans. When burned correctly, wood releases not one gram more CO2 than it had absorbed from the atmosphere during its growth. A perfectly balanced and closed circuit which is not compromising the CO2 balance sheet of our environment.

The practice of using wood in the best way reduces pollution by using only dry and well-seasoned wood. It should be stacked neatly off the ground, protected from rain, and have dried for at least 6 months. Wood burns best when the moisture content is around 20%.

When lighting a fire, keep the air supply open and flames intense. Dark dense smoke contains gases which were not burned and is an indicator that the combustion is not good enough. Maintain and clean the wood stove and flue once a year because soot does not conduct heat and reduces efficiency. Always have more than one log on the fire, this gives the flames more surface and creates airflow to keep the fire going. To maintain airflow, empty the ashes regularly.

Nature is reaching out, let's take her hand. We can observe natural energy cycles where one day's energy production contains a multitude of what we spend in a whole year. Solar energy used straight from the collectors could cover about 70-80% of our residential energy demand for hot water and heating. With energy produced from wood, hydro and wind power, we could cover a large part of our total energy demand in the medium and long run. Despite this, even the energy supply in Europe still consists of approximately 75% of non-renewable energy like mineral oil, gas, and coal.

Planet earth became habitable millions of years ago when carbon from the atmosphere was absorbed and stored in forests which turned into the coal, oil, and gas we use today as energy. However, the way we use fossil fuels today reverses this process and if we don't change, this direction will lead us to an earth that is inhospitable.

Every day, nature re-grows millions of cubic meters of wood in the forests of our planet. Just in the tiny land of Austria itself where the Thoma Holz100 forests originate, every second grows one cubic meter of wood.

Every day, the sun evaporates unimaginable amounts of water from the oceans into the atmosphere. This water returns as rain and fills creeks, lakes and rivers which lead it back to the oceans. The sun's power also causes air movements. Winds and storms could run all the machinery of this world. And the sun rises every day, what more could we want?

What does it take for us to realize that our energy demand is tiny compared to these powerful natural processes? When will we recognize that nature's designs are the most economic and wholesome?

Once we understand how to tune into that huge natural energy current, we won't need to waste fossil fuels like oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy so that nature can re-establish the natural balance of our earth.

By the time trees have grown from a seedling to a gigantic old tree and broken down, they have had decades of working out rankings with each other to establish their social position in the forest hierarchy. Animals and the entire forest community has been protected and nourished by them. The trees also provide for their own existence by supplying leaves and pine needles to the forest grounds to produce enough mulch for the coming generations. Finally when the tree has fulfilled its need for procreation, it leaves the same way as it came. Old tree giants collapse, break down and enrich the soil with nutrients for the next generation in which they live on.

This process from tree to mulch is in perfect natural order and a very productive cycle. The sun's energy and the carbon dioxide which is absorbed by the tree is released back into the atmosphere, when the tree is rotting.

We wish for an exponential increase of solar and passive homes, made of of wood, hemp and many uses of natural materials for our future generations. Mothers buying toys and fathers building homes set this trend and their demands will reach the people responsible in the economic and politic echelons.

Let's make the most of this sacred cycle and live in harmony with nature. Conservation means appreciate and manage our forests appropriately in a loving and caring way.