a little more
Apologies, there is a fair amount of material on the carbon impacts of steel and concrete on SmartPlanet, so I did assume readers had read previous posts. (If you haven't, I highly recommend it).
The evironmental friendliness of wood vs. steel vs. concrete is an ongoing debate, since they each consume energy to source, produce, and manufacture. All the materials have their own advocates (who have their own agendas).
As for the manufactured wood products not acting like "natural" timbers, even composite wood will act like large timbers because of mass and size. The binders used are non-flammable.
