Green waste to green architecture: optimizing urban tree systems for renewable construction material supply chains

Abstract

In this article, we share the prospect of using the lifecycle and growth advantages of urban trees as construction materials beyond the existing, more typical green infrastructure uses. Much work has been completed on green infrastructure, but the potential tie to the material and construction industry is completely underdeveloped. It is this symbiosis between our environmental green infrastructure systems, natural and designed, and our social systems, the decision-making, design, materiality and fabrication of our built environment in more sustainable directions which is the goal of this research. Technological advances now allow urban wastes from tree maintenance to be locally processed as viable construction materials in new ways and that if optimized in coordination with other environmental and social systems and efforts, we will see functional and environmental improvements in our urban environments with reductions in both imported materials, and exported wastes and improved energy levels and carbon sequestering.