Building With Sustainable Wood Is Key to Greener Cities

The city of Amsterdam uses a lot of wood—for public-housing construction, bridge repair, street furniture and more. But it’s tough to be sure the lumber doesn’t come from fragile ecosystems. Last summer, Amsterdam started working with the stewards of a sustainably managed forest in Suriname to buy traceable hardwoods for use in projects across the city. The alliance is the brainchild of Cities4Forests, a group that promotes sustainable building materials, aiming to make the construction industry greener and more equitable. We spoke with its co-founder, Canadian architect and lifelong wood obsessive Scott Francisco, about why tropical forests are vital to cities and why sustainability strategies frequently don’t work. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

You’ve criticized many cities’ plans for reaching zero carbon output. Why?
They’re too limited in their understanding of a city’s true carbon footprint. We only really count emissions created within a city, plus the emissions from generating its power. But another huge category is the services and products consumed in the city but produced halfway around the world. They’re a key part of the emissions footprint but aren’t presently counted rigorously. This overly local focus doesn’t go far enough.