Abstract

The wider use of wood as a load-bearing framing material can advance climate action by storing carbon in long-lived products. Substitution of traditional materials such as brick, concrete, and steel will be partly determined by dweller preferences. Unknown preferences allowed, we elicited stated choices for the following load-bearing materials in residential construction: (i) primarily wood and (ii) wood in combination with other materials, over the use of (iii) traditional (e.g., brick, concrete, steel). Stated choices with an opt-out option gathered from over 7,000 adults residing across seven European nations were modelled using a weighted multinomial logistic regression. Among our explanatory variables, past experience and knowledge dominated higher preferences toward wood over traditional materials. Negative attitudes related to wood harvesting had a strong inverse effect. Preferences show that primarily wood and wood in combination with other materials were perceived as two distinct load-bearing products. A concerted effort to better inform the public on the green credentials and performance features of wood might be necessary to increase its use in European residential load-bearing framing.

Keywords

Multi-storey building; wood; structural construction; stated preferences; multinomial logistic regression

Published in

Journal of Forest Economics
2023, Volume: 38, number: 1, pages: 77-111
Publisher: NOW PUBLISHERS INC

SLU Authors

• Aguilar Cabezas, Francisco X

  • Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Roos, Anders

  • Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Economics
Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1561/112.00000537

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/128428