Why An All-Electric Forestry Supply Chain Matters for CLT’s Carbon Balance
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Last Updated on: 29th August 2025, 11:09 am
The carbon story of cross laminated timber (CLT) is not only about how much carbon is stored in panels and buildings but also about how much is emitted in the process of getting logs from forests to construction sites. Environmental product declarations show that CLT is already net negative cradle to gate, storing far more carbon than it emits. Still, there are clear sources of emissions in the supply chain that can and should be addressed. Diesel burned in harvesters, forwarders, and trucks, natural gas in kilns, and petrochemical adhesives all add positive emissions that reduce the net benefit. With available technologies and focused policy, these sources can be largely eliminated, making the forestry chain itself close to zero emission and strengthening the climate case for mass timber.
The series so far has built a clear case for mass timber as Canada’s fastest lever to address housing, economy, and climate together. The opening article argued that CLT and modular construction can double housing supply while cutting embodied carbon. The second examined Mark Carney’s Build Canada Homes initiative and showed how government can act as an anchor buyer to turn policy into real housing output. The third mapped out Canada’s mass-timber playbook, stressing the need for an integrated value chain from sawmills to modules. The fourth explored how CLT substitution bends long-term cement and steel demand curves, making heavy industry decarbonization more achievable. The fifth dealt with the carbon sequestration bona fides of CLT.
The lifecycle breakdown is instructive. Harvesting and forwarding rely on heavy diesel machinery. Transport from forest to mill is almost entirely by diesel trucks. At the mill, drying is the most energy intensive step and most kilns are powered by natural gas or diesel. Adhesives that bond lumber layers into CLT panels are fossil based resins. Factory operations are cleaner because they run largely on grid electricity, which in Canada is already relatively low carbon, but propane or diesel equipment is still sometimes used. These stages account for roughly 120 kilograms of CO2 per cubic meter of CLT in an Element5 EPD. Against that, nearly a ton of CO2 is stored in the wood, so the product is already net negative. Driving the emissions side lower simply widens that negative balance.
Canada is in a strong position to act. Canada’s industrial forestry sector currently operates well below the ceiling set by sustainable forest management frameworks. The country harvested approximately 129.5 million cubic metres of industrial roundwood in 2022, while the sustainable wood supply was estimated at about 213.6 million cubic metres, meaning only about 60 percent of the allowable annual cut was utilized. This gap is even wider when looking at the area under harvest. In 2022, just 0.2 percent of Canada’s total forest area was harvested, and this value has remained under 0.4 percent over the past decade. These figures reflect both the conservatism of forest management rules and the under-utilization of the resource, largely due to lower market demand and constraints including climate-related disruptions and shifts in pipeline demand.
A fifth or more of Canada’s forestry products are shipped for single-use paper and wood products, napkins, packing and chopsticks. BC’s industry ships raw logs with zero value add. Diverting more of that existing extracted lumber resource to higher value add CLT is a no brainer.
This under-utilization creates a strategic window for scaling value-added wood products like CLT without threatening forest health. Harvesting more wood under existing annual cut limits can supply feedstock for mass timber factories, especially if paired with climate-smart management approaches. Indigenous partnerships, sustainable regeneration initiatives, and silviculture innovations can support increased yield while maintaining ecosystem integrity.
Large volumes of residues from sawmills are underused, and much of the forest biomass left behind could be collected for energy. At the same time, Canadian forests are under pressure from climate change. Pests, wildfire, and shifting growth zones are undermining the health of forests and threatening supply.
Active management is needed not only to provide sustainable feedstock for mass timber but also to adapt forests to new conditions. Climate change is both a supply challenge and a reason to modernize the forestry chain with cleaner technology and smarter data driven practices.
Policy support will be critical. Converting kilns from fossil fuels to biomass boilers or electric heat pumps requires capital. Zero emission freight corridors and charging infrastructure are needed to make battery electric logging trucks practical. Research and development funding is necessary to push lignin based adhesives from pilot scale to full production. Bio chemicals can replace fossil resins but need demand pull and industrial scale facilities to achieve cost competitiveness. Carbon pricing reinforces the economics of these changes, and government procurement can accelerate them by requiring low carbon supply chains in publicly funded projects.
On the ground, the actions are concrete. Biomass kilns powered by sawdust and bark close the loop, turning residues into energy instead of waste. Heat pump drying systems cut emissions further when powered by renewable electricity. FPInnovations has already trialed electric log trucks in British Columbia, showing large reductions in both energy use and emissions compared to diesel. Scaling up those trials to fleets is the next step. Lignin based adhesives are being demonstrated in Canadian plants and could replace fossil resins within a decade with the right support. Factories can run entirely on renewable energy by combining grid power with on site solar, biomass cogeneration, and storage. Digital tools can optimize harvest and hauling, reducing idling, cutting fuel use, and lowering costs while keeping operations aligned with sustainable forestry plans.
Charts that show the emissions waterfall before and after decarbonization make the point clear. Harvesting, transport, drying, adhesives, and factory operations all contribute positive emissions today. Each of those bars can shrink with technology that is available or near commercial. The 2030 and 2035 adoption curves for electric trucks, biomass kilns, and bio adhesives show the pathway to near zero process emissions. When paired with the large negative bar for biogenic storage, the overall balance becomes even more negative. CLT is already carbon negative, but with an electrified and sustainable forestry chain, it becomes a material with undeniable climate benefits.
There are risks. Heavy equipment fleets turn over slowly, and new electric harvesters or trucks cost more up front. Adhesive markets may take longer to shift than expected. Provinces may move unevenly on building codes and procurement requirements. Workforce development is needed to train operators for new equipment and technicians for new processes. But the enablers are strong. Federal and provincial climate funds exist. Canada’s grid will be net zero by 2035. Indigenous stewardship is aligning with industrial opportunities, bringing new partners and perspectives into forestry. Global demand for low carbon construction materials is rising, creating market pull.
The conclusion is that decarbonizing the forestry chain is an industrial strategy as much as an environmental one. CLT already stores more carbon than it emits, but electrifying harvesting, hauling, and drying, moving to bio adhesives, and running factories on clean power make that balance even stronger. Canada can lead by showing that forests managed responsibly and processed with clean technology can deliver housing, jobs, and climate benefits at the same time.
As climate change reshapes forestry, this shift is also a form of adaptation, making the sector more resilient while reducing its footprint. The opportunity is to transform forestry into a data driven, all electric, sustainable chain that reinforces the case for mass timber as the core building material of the twenty first century.
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