More wood use in the United States to construct low-rise nonresidential (NR) buildings would increase consumption and production of softwood (SW) lumber, engineered wood products, and structural and nonstructural wood panels. Using a consequential life-cycle analysis, we estimated the change in net CO 2 emissions that would be caused by increased use of SW lumber and structural panels in NR construction. Carbon (C) storage and emissions were projected over 50 years for baseline and increased wood use scenarios using the US Forest Products Module operating within the Global Forest Products Model (USFPM/GFPM) and the Southern region timber supply model (SRTS). Increased wood use in NR construction (C content of 428 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent [tCO 2 e]) could provide an emissions reduction of 870 million tCO 2 e over 50 years or a net emissions reduction of 2.03 tCO 2 e/tCO 2 e of extra wood used in NR buildings over 50 years. The CO 2 savings varied for products provided in the South, North, and West because of differences in biological timber regrowth; market-induced changes in land use; differences in timber harvests, lumber, and structural panel production; and associated differences in C stored in forests, harvested wood products, logging slash, and manufacturing emissions. The US South provided the largest net change, À2.83 tCO 2 e/tCO 2 e of extra wood products, followed by the North and West withÀ1.89 andÀ0.60 tCO 2 e/tCO 2 e of extra wood, respectively. These results suggest strategies that result in increased use of wood in place of nonwood products in NR buildings would be effective in mitigating CO 2 emissions.

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The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not imply endorsement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of any product or service.The USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director

The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not imply endorsement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of any product or service.The USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. The Canadian capacity went from 88.2 million m 3 to 71.6 million m 3 , a loss of 19%, while the U.S. capacity dropped from 102.6 million m 3 to 94.8 million m 3 , a loss of 8%. These losses are attributable to three unprofitable years of sawmilling caused by the contraction in construction. Construction and repair and remodeling of homes each accounted for about 35% of total lumber consumption in 2006. Their downturn has caused demand to lag substantially behind the capacity that was built up to supply the prior boom. The greater drop in Canadian capacity can be deduced from a number of factors including the imposition of tariffs of up to 15% on exports to the U.S. and the strengthening of the Canadian dollar. Based on underlying population growth, the demand for home building is expected to rebound but somewhat slowly until the overhang of unoccupied homes built in the former building surge is absorbed. Further attrition of capacity is likely, as profitability is unlikely to return until a combination of recovering demand and contracting supply due to further capacity attrition equalize in the market.

The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not imply endorsement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of any product or service. The USDA prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.