<p>Recently I watch a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqGH1_tAjlU" rel="nofollow noreferrer">video</a> on which they made a pretty impressively large building complex for housing out of timber. And they were saying that timber is sustainable compared to concrete and such.  From the outset this seems pretty straight forward, trees grow back so long you don't do anything terrible to the ground the grow on (like salt it or build a shopping mall), and concretes components (ie. the stones and calcium oxide. the water does evaporate) does not. However thinking a little harder I know that plants need phosphorous to grow, and currently there is a <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-the-great-phosphorus-shortage-could-leave-us-all-hungry-54432" rel="nofollow noreferrer">shortage of of phosphorous</a>. <strong>If we are using tress to build our skyscrapers, wouldn't they be locking away our supply of phosphorous for our food and the world's ecosystem? Therefore, is using timber really that sustainable?</strong></p>

<p>that all said it'll probably be better than concrete and steel, and nothing probably perfectly sustainable.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-19T18:50:22.820Z
Probably more suited to https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/
bon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-19T18:54:32.300Z
@bon probably your right, i didn't know i tried looking for climate or environment in the all site. is it possible to move it?
Dennis.Verweij
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-19T19:14:16.023Z
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs in sustainability.stackexchange.com
arkaia
<climate-change>
How sustainable is timber housing?
Dennis.Verweij
# How sustainable is timber housing?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-19)

Recently I watch a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqGH1_tAjlU) on which they made a pretty impressively large building complex for housing out of timber. And they were saying that timber is sustainable compared to concrete and such. From the outset this seems pretty straight forward, trees grow back so long you don't do anything terrible to the ground the grow on (like salt it or build a shopping mall), and concretes components (ie. the stones and calcium oxide. the water does evaporate) does not. However thinking a little harder I know that plants need phosphorous to grow, and currently there is a [shortage of of phosphorous](http://theconversation.com/how-the-great-phosphorus-shortage-could-leave-us-all-hungry-54432). **If we are using tress to build our skyscrapers, wouldn't they be locking away our supply of phosphorous for our food and the world's ecosystem? Therefore, is using timber really that sustainable?**

that all said it'll probably be better than concrete and steel, and nothing probably perfectly sustainable.

**Tags:** climate-change

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Probably more suited to https://sustainability.stackexchange.com/  
> **username_0**: @username_1 probably your right, i didn't know i tried looking for climate or environment in the all site. is it possible to move it?  
> **username_2**: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs in sustainability.stackexchange.com  

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## 0 answers

